Well it’s a good job you came to the right place then, I have got some 1/4" to 1/8" collets coming from the USA. As luck would have it if you’re interested I have not ordered them yet, they are about £10 each and designed to fit our kind or spindles.

I’ve got a Ferm FBF-6E, from what I can see and what the internet suggests the Trend T3 units are basically a re-badged version of the Ferm.



Now if you look on eBay you will see the Trend T3 up for £55 or something very close to that. Now this Ferm unit cost me £10 + £8 postage, tonight I have just found another seller who has also done me the same deal, this time I paid £15 all in.

Fair enough these units are both second hand but as luck would have it both have not really had much use according to the sellers, what I’m getting at is they seem to be a good price if you’re willing to look for them. The Ferm FBF-6E ok it’s an older (3 years?) unit but all I have done is re-greased the bearings, the bushings are still well over half left on them.

I’ve not checked but I’m guessing the bearings are the 608ZZ type so easy to source and replace.

The sellers seem to be listing these units on auctions rather than "Buy it Now" on eBay, all I did was email them offering £10 paid via PayPal and I would take care of DHL collecting them. Maybe I got lucky twice :), I have seen a number of these units going over eBay for the last few weeks now, I’ve just also been sold a Trend T3 tonight for £20, same situation again.

If your reading this and about to buy a Trend T3 Unit for your machine, take some time first and look for the Ferm unit, if they are not on a "Buy It Now" in your price range, email the seller you never know what you can pick up, takes 2min's to email the seller ! And as tonight shows you could do the same and possibly get yourself a T3 cheap.

Ok getting back on track, so yea I’m also in the same boat with regards to being limited to cutters with 1/4" shank. You can find them on eBay but you’ve just got to spend a bit of time looking.

I managed to find a seller who had some dormer end mills up for sale with 1/4" shanks, 2,2.5,3,3.5,4 and also 5mm I took the lot off him as I do like my dormer tooling, I think he's got the half sizes left and 3-4 of the 5mm as I didn’t want them all, his link is here .

I’ve also found this ebay item you may want to look at, works out £3 each.



I don’t know of Clarkson so I wasn’t to sure if they would be up to much so I only ordered 1 pack, if they turn out to be ok ill more then likely buy some more at that price.

Coming back to the 1/4" to 1/8" collets, here is the link to the ebay listing so 1/8" is 3.175mm so I’m hoping these collets ADAPTORS as he’s calling them will take/hold a 3mm shank. I’ve also emailed this guy asking if he can just send me x2 of the 1/4" to 1/8" as the listing is for a 1/4" to 1/4" and a 1/4" to 1/8" and he is willing to do that, so if you want to grab two of them give him an email.

The other thing to note is I also have the sizes of these collets and they are the same size as my 1/4" collets in all dimensions.



Below is links to small cutters with 6mm or 3mm shanks on them, the prices are ok I guess.

1.00 mm Solid Carbide 3 Flute End mill
Carbide Miniature Burrs- 3.00mm Shank

The above have 3mm shanks.

5/64" (1.98mm) Long Series End mills Clarkson Cutters

Coming back to the collets ADAPTORS, I’ve arranged a bulk price with the seller as I’ve got a feeling we are not the only ones who could make use of these. Let me know if you’re interested in buying some and ill speed up on ordering them from him.

I'll be looking up the Ali frame on RS's website in a just a mo. Hopefully you can make some use of the information above.