From my experience the RDG offerings will be the same as the eBay stuff but with a big mark up as you said, all made in China, which isn't a bad thing in itself. My last purchase from them wasn't a happy experience.

Tony

Edited By Tony Pratt 1 on 07/04/2022 20:15:39

VAT and other charges are all now included. There shouldn't be any surprises.

I've had several sets of the Chinese ones from Amazon. The quality is hit and miss but at least returns are free if they are really bad.

It almost seems like in a typical set most of them are fine but you nearly always get a couple of crappy ones.

I've always preferred CTC Tools over eBay for this stuff. I believe their offerings – still from China – are a bit more "selected".

Shopapt **LINK** have them with different accuracy stated.

Jim

Trouble with ebay is it's a market-place, not a single seller. What's on offer varies from fake through to top-end surplus, even from the same supplier. Getting a refund in the event a lemon arrives can be problematic,

I don't know of any way of guaranteeing an ebay purchase will be fit for purpose. Could be a bargain or not, it's always a risk. Mostly ebay has worked out for me, and the few occasions I've come unstuck were due to pushing my luck – 'bargains' that were too cheap to be real. My purchases are always made with the possibility it might go sour in mind, and I take the rough with the smooth. No floods of tears if I get one wrong.

In practice, I prefer to buy tools from mid-range reputable suppliers who sort problems out. RDGs costs are higher in part because the price covers a high level of customer service in the event there's a foul up. A fly-by-night abroad has fewer obligations, and might not give any satisfaction at all.

My ER collets came from Warco (metric) and ArcEuro(Imperial). They're all good.

Dave

+1 for CTC. I bought from them a while back when they only listed on eBay, and had good experience. At the time the company was run by a German based in China, and I was pleased with the products and the service. When I wanted an extra collet which was outside the range normally supplied he was very helpful and supplied what I needed at very reasonable cost. Collets I bought all seemed to be within the stated DIN spec. on runout.

Mike

The problem with the bad collets is not just one thing. I had some amazingly bad collets, and when the collet was placed onto a mandrel that just allowed the collet to be held is when I found out the often the main 8 deg taper, even though it was not concentric, was at least fairly even in the run out readings from the back to it's high point. In most cases, it was the front 30deg taper that was cut on some obscure plane to the rest of the collet and was the main cause of the problems. I did a trial and repaired one of the 1/4 inch id ER 11 collets. It was a learning experience in both repairing a bad product, and trying to get the seller to recognise that what they sold me was junk. It is now a very good working collet, but needed a cylindrical grinder to correct it. I just gave up on all the other ones that came in the set. I then bought an ARC set and it has been a very good set for the ER11 series collets I use in the lathe for small parts holding. The ones I use in the cnc spindle are the 5um ER20 collets and the 5um ER11 collets that fit my ER20 to ER11 collet adapters that I made several years ago. It is amazing with the ER system how if the nut is bad,ie the thread is not concentric to the 30 deg cone inside, how it can push around the nose of the collet and make the part run out a measurable amount at the end of the part, give the indication that the collet is bad.

Always lots to learn even in a hobby.

AKA "beats me!"

+1 for CTC I have made several purchases including a set of ER25 collets and have been very pleased with them and everything else they have supplied. I did buy an ER25 straight shank collet chuck from RDG to use on my Kennet grinder and the run out on the internal taper of that was just under 5 thou, unfortunately it had sat in a drawer for a year or so before I tried it so couldn't return it, fortunately it machined ok, but after a few similar experiences I don't buy anything from that company anymore.

I don't know if they sell ER collets but I bought 5C collets from ARC and Gloster tooling and they are very satisfactory, as was the service from both.

My Vertex ER 32 collet set was quite pricey but the accuracy of the ones I checked was very pleasing.

Dave

When I bought my ER40 set I bought cheap ones in all the most common sizes. I then replaced them and filled in the gaps with top quality ones if and when they turned up at bargain prices. I got lucky when a guy was selling unused Swiss rego-fix ones on ebay for £6 each! Needless to say I now have a complete set of almost entirely rego-fix collets.