ER11 collets

[ChuckD]

I've been reading some older threads about drilling with a cnc and have read about collet sets for drilling.

The price difference between brands is pretty dramatic from what I've found

amazon

www.amazon.com/er11-collet-set/s?k=er11+collet+set

average around $25 for a set, a few for under $20

or

industrial supply co.

exactindustrialsupply.com/pages/collets-er-collet-sets

$100+ - $300+

you get what you pay for but that is a huge price difference

can anyone give a review on any one of these sets?

or should I be looking at 1/4" shank end mills in various diameters instead? I don't anticipate drilling a lot but "manure occurs" and I may find myself drilling for days in a multitude of diameters

thanks for the help

[dadealeus]

I've exclusively used the cheap Amazon variety for 3 years now without any issues whatsoever.

I'm finding, especially now, that you no longer always get what you pay for. I'm a big fan of capitalism when there's true competition to drive innovation and lower prices of goods, but we've been faced with an ever-shrinking supply chain here in the US as production of goods are sourced from overseas were labor is cheap.

All this to say that there is little difference between an American company that produces these collets or a Chinese company that produces the collets when they are both made with Chinese metals - aside from the insane markup in price for producing here in the states.

Just my opinion, but I'd say save your money. If, for some reason, there *is* a difference and one of your collets breaks/deforms/whatever, you can literally buy 5-15 more of the cheap sets before you reach the price of a single set of the others.

[gerry]

Cheap collets are just that, CHEAP. I was having a problem with a 1/8" shank in a 1/8" collet. Poor holes. I tested the runout and it was obvious. I purchased a Amana Tools collet from ToolsToday. Problem solved. Just for the heck of it, I purchased a couple more cheap 0.125 collets. They were all junk compared to the Amana. Face it, most hobbyist folks only need to replace heavily used ones every year or two. Lightly used ones, rarely. The 1/4" ER11 was under $30.

[dadealeus]

I checked my old Amazon purchase history and I guess I went with a happy medium which has worked for me without issues. Here are the exact collet sets I'm using (imperial and metric):

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RZZUHTC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SS1Y6GC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A little over $100 per set (I paid $95 per set back in 2018) and none of them have given me any issues. I've milled everything from wood (plywood, walnut, maple, yellow pine), plastics and foam (HDU, PPO, HDPE), and aluminum (6061) for several years and am still using the same sets.

[ChuckD]

Oct 27, 2021 18:02:52 GMT -5 dadealeus said:

I checked my old Amazon purchase history and I guess I went with a happy medium which has worked for me without issues. Here are the exact collet sets I'm using (imperial and metric):

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RZZUHTC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SS1Y6GC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

A little over $100 per set (I paid $95 per set back in 2018) and none of them have given me any issues. I've milled everything from wood (plywood, walnut, maple, yellow pine), plastics and foam (HDU, PPO, HDPE), and aluminum (6061) for several years and am still using the same sets.

thanks for the link

price wise, that is right down the middle of whats out there