Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Wonderful set-up Bruce. I had once considered going with a 5C collet set but realized early on that my little Atlas 618 has nowhere near the rigidity needed to make any real use of such a powerful clamping system. Also, very unlikely that I'd ever be trying to turn anything that required that much strength and precision!

I've settled on a set of ER 25 collets for my lathe and mill, and even "built" the collet chuck for my lathe, as the collet set came with an R8 shank that fits my little mill's spindle, though I almost never us the ER 25s on the mill anyway as the R8s take care of nearly all that business for me just fine. On my lathe, anything bigger than what the ER 25s will hold is simply going into three and four jaw chuck territory anyway.

For the size and capabilities of your machines, I have no doubt that you've made the correct choice here, and you have certainly dialed that chuck in, to the limits of precision of your indicator. I can't hardly see that needle twitch in the slightest, and it definitely isn't moving even a tiny fraction of a tenth!