ER 32 Collets

My new ER 32 collets arrived today, about 3 days ahead of the original stated delivery date. It appears that the collet are the exact same brand as the set I got from BangGood, about 1-2 years ago. I had ordered a 11 piece set, they sent a 13 piece set, they sent a 1/16” and a 7/32”, that were not listed on the sale posting.

I check the run out, on 4 of the collets, the ones where I had hardened ground down pins of that size, 1/4”, 3/8”, 1/2” and 9/16”. The combine runout of the collets and the spindle of the 50+ yr old Rockwell milling machine where

1/4” - ~.0007”
3/8” - ~.0007”
1/2” - ~.0009”
9/16” - ~.001 (a tad less than .001”, but a tad more than .0009”)

I had similar reading off of the shanks of new carbide end mills, using both a B&S and Intrepid brand test indicators.

I also checked the runout on the 3/16” collet, using just the shank of a new carbide end mill, it was in the .0015” range, not sure if it’s the collet or the end mill, t was the only 3/16” carbide end mill I had and all of the HSS 3/16” end mills I have have 3/8” shanks.
 
Except for the last one, they don’t seem that bad, I would use them.....
 
Firstgear said:
Except for the last one, they don’t seem that bad, I would use them.....
Click to expand...

For what I use them for, they will be fine. The Rockwell is a light use machine, if it’s real precise or heavy, I use the Jet or Bridgeport.
 
At about 10 am, the mail man, dropped off my new ball bearing ER 32 nut. As I had already checked the run out on 4 of the collets, last night, I reran the test with the new nut. Using the same collets, end mills and the hardened ground dowel pins.

All of the collets had their run out basically cut in half, they are now down in the .0004”-.0005” range., the 3/16” collet with the carbide end mill dropped down from roughly .0015” to 0008”.

I was surprise the ball bearing nut, made that much difference.
 
Where did you get the nut from? Brand?
 
I bought it off the internet (EBay), from Rocky Mountain CNC solutions out of Colorado Springs, Colorado. It was about $21, with free shipping.
Some obscure Chinese manufactured nut, very well made, fit perfectly and seems to work as intended.
 
Buffalo21 said:
At about 10 am, the mail man, dropped off my new ball bearing ER 32 nut. As I had already checked the run out on 4 of the collets, last night, I reran the test with the new nut. Using the same collets, end mills and the hardened ground dowel pins.

All of the collets had their run out basically cut in half, they are now down in the .0004”-.0005” range., the 3/16” collet with the carbide end mill dropped down from roughly .0015” to 0008”.

I was surprise the ball bearing nut, made that much difference.
Click to expand...
how did you come up with the idea to find and try a ball bearing cap?
 
One of the local machine shop use them on some of their smaller CNC machines, they were the reason, I first decided to get ER style collets originally, then I did hours of reading and phone calls to other people who also used them. During this time the subject of ball bearing nuts, their benefits and their use, was brought up. Everyone who had tried them, were positive about them, I heard no negatives.

I did some looking around and found a middle of the road priced, ball bearing nuts, neither the cheapest or most expensive. I talked to the one supplier, he said if I wasn’t happy, he would take it back, no questions asked, but his was 4-6 weeks away. The one I got was priced right, was available in the US, could be had quickly and finally had free shipping.

I do quite a bit of small stainless steel parts, using carbide end mills, so effective collets were necessary. While I never had an issue with R8 collets, they never gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling. The extra projection of the collet chuck in most cases, to me is an additional benefit. That and the ER collet system is very common, many suppliers offer them and accessories, I also use the SYOZ 25 systems (EOC 25), on the other milling machines I have, they work great, but are uncommon (compared to ER collets) and relatively expensive. As the ER 32 collet system user, the Rockwell mill is the lesser used machine the added cost was hard to justify
 
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