Advice on Collets

[Dr. MC BlackParticipant @dr-mcblack73214]

The Ebay user name was "fiwnf-89:"

I have just tried to search to see if they are still selling things on Ebay but the search can not find them!

I paid using my Credit Card which was processed by Ebay through Paypal (which, I believe, is part of Ebay)

I have NOT been able to go back to find the real name of the seller but, as I wrote, it has discouraged me from buying from sellers in China.

I don't know if a UK company would be so unhelpful, but one could go to Trading Standards if there were problems

I paid a total of £6.59 for the set of collets so I put the dreadful treatment by the seller down to "experience"

MC

[Chris Taylor 3Participant @christaylor3]

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply – 24 in 24 hours and counting. I should have been more specific, I was thinking of what I now know are called finger collets, I do have a set of milling collets. There was an offer from the supplier beginning with Noah's transport (not a gun going off) which, combined with a Texan YouTube demonstration of making square collet adapters for small parts inspired me to consult the forum. I now have plenty of information to mull over!

Incidentally, I'm not sure if I am alliowed to say this, but I had great service from "the one starting with a gun going off" when I bought my mill DRO kit.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by not done it yet on 16/10/2020 14:27:41:

[…

Likely the one whose name starts like a gun going off?

.

Curiously enough …

A well known distribution company, whose name we dare not mention, states:

In Chinese bang (棒 translates into English to something similar to good.

… I think they probably enjoyed that linguistic joke.

MichaelG.

.

Sorry … the stupid smiley thing is supposed to be a closing parenthesis !!

I really can’t be bothered fighting the system

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 16/10/2020 17:02:32

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

If you leave a space between the text and the closing bracket, you don't get the ******* smiley.

Took me a long time to find out that! But I still forget

Howard

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by MC Black on 16/10/2020 15:07:13:

… I paid a total of £6.59 for the set of collets so I put the dreadful treatment by the seller down to "experience"

MC

 

ER16 collets costing £1.65 each screams 'too cheap' at me and UK Consumer Law doesn't apply when importing privately. It's not as dangerous as buying a Rolex for £100 from a stranger in a poorly lit car park, but expect the worst. Some internet enablers might refund the money, others don't.

Some comfort in this example because 5/32" imperial is so close to 3-4mm metric it's not worth arguing about. (Though usable the other 3 collets are miles off being good Imperial substitutes.)

UK Suppliers provide better customer support and pay tax so no surprise their collets are about £7 each. £20 if posh ones are ordered.

Buying cheap from abroad is best treated as the gamble it is. Generally I've done OK, but there have been a few misadventures. Caveat Emptor.

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 16/10/2020 18:00:53

[Nigel BennettParticipant @nigelbennett69913]

Posted by MC Black on 16/10/2020 13:58:04:

I purchased a set of ER16 collets in Imperial Fractional sizes for my lathe.

I was VERY surprised to find that three of the set were actually labelled in metric sizes even though I had ordered Imperial.

The collet in the box labelled 5/32 is actually marked 4-3
The collet in the box labelled 7/32 is actually marked 6-5
The collet in the box labelled 9/32 is actually marked 7.5
The collet in the box labelled 5/16 is actually marked 8-7

I complained to the seller and almost 20 messages went back and forth – but I might as well have banged my head on a brick wall for all the good it did!

I resolved to stop buying things from China if I wanted any sort of Customer Service!

MC

I really don't know what your problem is. 5/32" and 4mm are so close that no collet maker is going to bother creating an imperial version of what would be exactly the same collet – it just does not matter what they are marked; they are fit for purpose and will grip the Imperial dimension stated on the box.

The range of ER collets in these sizes is 1mm as you can see by the marking, and if they cover the Imperial size you need, then why kick up a fuss? If I was that bothered, I'd get a little diamond engraver and etch the imperial size on myself.

I'm so glad the UK went metric 50 years ago.

[Dr. MC BlackParticipant @dr-mcblack73214]

It was a set of NINE so only 73 new pence each!

The four listed were NOT the size on the box. The others were as described.

The point of my original posting was to relate the rotten service that I received from a company based in China. I would NOT risk buy anything expensive in similar circumstances.

MCB

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Howard Lewis on 16/10/2020 17:18:35:

If you leave a space between the text and the closing bracket, you don't get the ******* smiley.

Took me a long time to find out that! But I still forget

Howard

.

Yes, thanks Howard, I know that … but I was doing a copy and paste quote

MichaelG.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Michael

That is interesting.

If I try to copy / paste on the Forum, a message tells me that "you can't do that there, 'ere"

Whats the secret, please?

Howard

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Howard Lewis on 17/10/2020 16:53:01:

Michael

That is interesting.

If I try to copy / paste on the Forum, a message tells me that "you can't do that there, 'ere"

Whats the secret, please?

Howard

.

I have the same problem when using the Mac, Howard

But the iPad does it O.K.

… presumably something to do with the operating system and/or the flavour of HTML that it uses.

… All beyond my comprehension, but perhaps someone will come along to explain.

What really surprised me was that an ‘Auto Smiley’ was inserted to replace the combination of a Chinese character and a closing parenthesis.

MichaelG.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

ER type collets do have a range per collet depending on the er size, the smaller ones span 1/2mm and the larger, er20 and up span 1mm. If you get Morse taper direct collets with three longitudinal cuts, they should only be used for the exact size marked. As already mentioned, the MT direct type give you the maximum ammount of Z height which can be important with a small mill. A drawbar would have to be made to use them in the lathe, which is easy with a length of studding.

Edited By old mart on 17/10/2020 20:11:39

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

You can actually get 0.5mm increment collets in all sizes not just below ER20 from the industrial suppliers such as Regofix, they also do the likes of 5/32" and 5/16" which won't take 4 or 8mm ones the reason for this is that they only gaurantee the accuracy of their high precision ones at the nominal size though that is more than most of us are likely to need.

As for copy and paste, try ctl & V together

Edited By JasonB on 17/10/2020 20:23:01

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