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View Full Version : Mini Lathe - which collect type (& chuck) should I go for?



HankMcSpank
09-11-2009, 12:37 PM
Ok, so I bought a mini lathe off Ebay ...which came without a chuck. Now I'm clueless about a lot of things in life & I put lathes in that category. A lot of reading ensued the outcome being I though a 4 jaw independent chuck would be my best option - quack, quack oops ...it's such a chore to use, that I'd rather drill my kneecaps than have to go through the arse of lining a bit of material up! (which means it's not getting any use)

Now, since I mainly work with small round bar type stuff...I now realise that a collect chuck would be a far better (quicker!) option.

But I'm overwhelmed at the options...can any of you good folk here, help me choose the 'best bang per buck'.

My mini Axminister (C2 300A) lathe has an MT3 spindle, I envisage working with round bar in the region of 3mm-10mm.

This is just a hobby & I'm not a heavy user, so I don't want to pay a massive premium for top notch quality, but I don't want to be cursing everytime I change a collet either!

Many thanks!

ptjw7uk
09-11-2009, 02:47 PM
The best thing I did was to go with an ER32 collet chuck for the lathe.

The reason being that the collets are closed from the front sp that work can be fitted through the spindle bore. I have a set of mt3 collets but are only suted to short lengths as the draw bar gets in the way.
I suppose you could always make a hollow draw bar is you are sticking below 10mm, on second thoughts that may not work as the mt3 thread is 3/8.
The Er collet has a wider range than most collet systems also using a collet will allow the work to be replaced for further machining.

Peter