You will always be a novice if you do not try, go on push yourself! Not everything comes out of a pretty box.

The obvious place, if one cannot be found second-hand, is Schaublin!

First warning sign is “REQUEST QUOTATION”, which often means “if you have to ask you can’t afford it”.   Make sure your pacemaker is in good working order before asking, and you may find their chucks have heavy industrial fittings, not MT or R8.

Problem is Schaublin collets are high-end precision to fit a high-end precision chuck made for a high-end precision tool.  All expensive, and they work in combination to achieve high accuracy.   A Schaublin collet fitted to an ordinary machine tool won’t perform better than an ordinary collet system.

A single Schaublin collet makes no sense in my workshop:

• I rarely work to better than 0.02mm.
• My equipment is hobby modest, the lathe has an MT spindle, and it’s far from Schlaubin Swiss accurate!
• ER collets and chucks are affordable, widely available, , and more accurate than my lathe and mill.   A good compromise.  Not universal, and for serious collet work my first choice would be 5C, not Schaulblin, for cost and availability reasons.
• Collet work usually requires several different sizes: a set, not just one.  Schaulblin collets aren’t common, so although they turn up, finding them at the right price and condition may take time.  In sharp contrast ER are dead easy to source, and there is plenty of 5C about.  Collets and chucks – no problem.

From where I am, putting a Schlaublin collet to work risks falling into a time consuming money pit, only worth doing if there’s a good reason.  Only Paul can judge whether this is worth his while.

A deeper issue for newcomers to think about: do you need the best of all possible tools?   The answer is a resounding no, unless there’s a known requirement for them.    Traditional advice is to buy the best because it will last a lifetime and hold it’s value.   This was correct 70 years ago when young men bought tools as a long lasting investment.  Back then many tools were ‘too cheap’, best avoided, so sensible to cough up for better.  All change!  Now most newcomers are approaching retirement, and it’s not sensible  for them to waste money on equipment that will last longer than the owner. Might end up in a skip if the grieving family don’t know what to do with it.  Manufacturing improvements have put a lot of mid-range tooling on the market, which is plenty good enough for most hobby purposes, and cheap to replace / upgrade.   And it doesn’t matter much if an entire mid-range workshop ends up being scrapped.

Dave

If you’re dead set on using just one collet these people might be able to help. https://www.floydautomatic.co.uk/