Collet chuck - oh my word!

[Peter.]

I got a nice Hardinge/Sjogren collet chuck and a big rack of 2j collets with my recent lathe purchase and since it was the same fitting as my current lathe I thought I'd install it on there to do some turning. I'd never owned or used a collet chuck before though I'd seen people waxing lyrical about the benefit of using them for repeatability and low runout.

All I can say is - the three-jaw is now permanently relegated to the bottom drawer - only to be used in emergencies! It seems such a clumsy way to hold anything now. I'm definately a collet convert!

[Pherdie]

I have several different collet set ups for my lathe, including a tru-set Bison 5C chuck which sees the most duty. The collet chuck is usually more than adequate for most of my projects but has the added feature of helping me skirt interference issues between my taper attachment and headstock/sheet metal when working too close to the headstock.

[j king]

Discovered the same several years ago.use it 90% of the time on my small lathe .love it.

[DICKEYBIRD]

Yup collets are great. Pi$$es me off when something too big to fit comes along and I have to stick a 3 or 4 jaw back on. Wish I'd gone with ER40 instead of 32.

[Jaakko Fagerlund]

Sure works if anything you do involves nice round and drawn to size workpiece materials, but for me that isn't so and that is why 99.9 % of what I do requires the 3-jaw. The last 0.1 % is the part that I don't too - called being lazy

[JCHannum]

The Hardinge Sjorgen chucks are nice, but the collets are limited in size range and roundness. I have one with a good assortment of 5C collets and it is indeed accurate.

A couple of years ago I picked up a Jacobs Rubberflex chuck with a set of collets. It is equally as accurate as the Hardinge, covers a greater range of sizes and is not size and surface sensitive. Unfortunately they are no longer made, but often turn up at affordable prices. I highly recommend nabbing one if given the chance.