Thank you GK1918!
It's the tapers that I'm the most concerned about. I can/will measure my own collets and compare them to the numbers that Hardinge publicly posts.
"I can draw up a chicken scratch of a series C holder If that will help (I machine my own)" The scratch will be very helpful in confirming or refuting what I draw on my little draftsmans board. I like to draw things up because it helps me think about set up and sequence.
Yep, I've got the 3CH Cincy monoset collets.
Now for the best question: "why the need for series "A". ???"
Several things:
1) I've got a friend who pours and paints fishing lures as job. He is a one man shop hundreds of thousands of hand poured, hand painted fishing lures each year, all different sizes. He customizes his aluminum molds and frequently needs a 1/8inch end mill to detail the molds. The A collet system does the 1/8". However, since I got the Van Norman 6 that problem is obviated.
2) Whenever possible I use a collet instead of my Drill chuck. While my Jacobs has to much run out for small center drills, my Albrect is solid. Regardless, with both I loose alot of clearance. While I have 1/4inch and 3/8inch, I haven't been able to find a 5/16inch C collet. And I've had the standard issue A collets selection on the shelf for a while. Additionally, the farther any of us extend from the spindle the greater the possibility of the introduction of error.
3) I want to see if I can do the whole thing on the lathe. All the internal and external tapers and internal and external threading. For many of you this is not a difficult task. However, I'm still very much a NOOB. And I need to prove to myself I can do it. I plan to turn a C Collet with a MT3 first, as I have a Wahlstrom Chuck I'd like to use.
4) I'm nuts! Ever since I opened Moores books on precision I've been fascinated with precision and accuracy on manual machines. Not using DRO or powerfeeds. How good can I make the machine and machine operator interface. Toag and bigearl67 have both attempted therapy by discussing the "80% solution" . Wherein the best solution is the one that works. And "good enough" works. Yes, I understand that unnecessarily taking a project to the exact spec is unnecessary and unprofitable. That getting within tolerance is good enough. However, I'm not in a production environment and I'm not getting paid for parts sold.
So while I likely really don't need an A Collet holder I want to discover if I can do turn it with all the tapers and threading exactly on spec. I'm hoping that I can get this psychotic disorder out of my head before I stumble on a vintage Jig Bore (with end measure locating). Yes, what I really dream about is a little Moore or Pratt Jig Bore with tooling. I'd even take a SIP. Regardless, she'd have to be Old Iron!
So at the risk of aiding and abetting deviant behavior if you are still willing/able to scratch some numbers and a sketch it'd be helpful.
Thank you,
Daryl
MN