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Collet Chuck

keithkarl

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Has anyone ever used a collet chuck for turning pens and other small turnings? I've been tempted for a while to get the Beall direct thread collet chuck. It can be purchased on its own and the ER32 collets can be bought reasonably on Ebay. Anyone have any experience good or bad with a similar chuck.
 

Jim

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Oct 19, 2011
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15,616
Keith, i use this Pen Mandrel from Axminster ...

This mandrel has a collet chuck facility for holding small stuff directlly, i got my set of ER20 Collet Chucks from here ...:thumbs:


Welcome to the forums Keith BTW ..
 

Buckeye

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I use an ER32 collet chuck on the metal lathe, I wish I had the same for the wood lathe, it would make things easier. No idea about the beale chuck, sorry.

Peter
 

keithkarl

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The Beall chuck is available in threads for differing lathes. They are an American company and they actually have one available for an M33x3.5 lathe like my Jet. Over there most of the spindles are imperial. I thought it would be useful for transfer punches to hold the blanks when squaring the ends. I tried that method in a Jacobs chuck witha round piece of bar that fit inside a pen tube very snug and it worked well.
 

Woody

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I had the Axminster one and used it for years turning bung feet, finials and some spindle work which needed spigots on the end and they work a treat
 

paulm

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I have a collet chuck for the pin mandrel to make closed end pens. I think its a good idea to have one for all mandrels and the reason its not used more widely is the price.
 

keithkarl

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The Beall looks like a substantial piece of kit. I did come across the Axminster one but thought the Beall looked more heavy duty and beefier. The collets I think can go right up to 20mm.
 

keithkarl

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Thanks for the welcome Jim. I actually joined ages ago but was laid off work and had to cut my spending on pen kits. I have a few Panache kits that I never turned and I don't think there is a pen mill large enough to trim the large blanks. I thought a collet chuck with the appropriate transfer punch would allow turning of the ends of the blanks.
 

wm460

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I have a morse taper collet chuck for both my metal and wood lathe in ER25 but found some of my bullet pens didn't fit in them, So bought a body of a collet chuck that screws on to the spindle. quite often I wish I had bought the ER32 set of collets.
 

Buckeye

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Thanks for the welcome Jim. I actually joined ages ago but was laid off work and had to cut my spending on pen kits. I have a few Panache kits that I never turned and I don't think there is a pen mill large enough to trim the large blanks. I thought a collet chuck with the appropriate transfer punch would allow turning of the ends of the blanks.

One of the best ways to deal with the ends of blanks is to sand them. Put sandpaper on a faceplate and the relevant sized transfer punch in the Jacobs chuck in your tailstock and sand away. Terry made a nice jig http://www.penturners.co.uk/pen-making-accessories/2929-promised-photos-my-sanding-jig.html

Peter
 

InkyFingers

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Apr 9, 2014
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I've just bought a ER32 collet chuck after some discussion on ukworkshop.
I was uncertain of the accuracy of the cheaper models as they do not give any figures

I ended up buying the arceurotrade ER32 Lathe Collet Chucks and a back plate which I drilled to match. Given some clearance in the holes I am able to centre the chuck to the lathe. This was intended for an ML7.
Only problem I then found was that when I moved it to my Axi perform CCL (with a thread adapter) it was miles out but I can readjust to suite. I found that it was the spindle nose causing the issue.

The advantage of using this way of fitting is that you can adjust it if the chuck/lathe/collet runout is outside your needs.

Cheers

Inky
 

rowdyyates115

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Jun 22, 2013
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I also use the Axminster one, have added a couple of extra collets. Very good for drilling out the centers of Cartridges for my pens.....:wink:
 


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