Unlike many people on this NG, I never use 5C collets for holding tooling.
I use them almost exclusively in 5C collet fixturing where runout is much
less critical. So I buy my collets from Grizzly, and I have no complaints
about their fit or finish. In fact, after 10 years of owning my Grizzly
set I have no knowledge that they are in any way less than perfect. So
save yourself some $$ if you can get away with it.

Me? I'd go dirt cheap or else new Hardinge.

Grant

Paul T. wrote:

Lyndex, Brown & Sharpe, and Hardinge are names to look for.


For your reference collet, I would definitely go with Hardinge, you can by
them online from them. Royal is another top quality collet manufacturer.
Keep in mind these top quality collets have associated prices.

I would stay away from the Lyndex collets. They're mid-ranged in price but
my experience with them is the quality is no better than the cheapo import
collets. I bought a set of Lyndex collets but had to send them back- several
of them had threads out of spec and the run-out on all the collets was just
so-so.

I ended up buying a full 1/64" set of the cheapo Enco collets on sale.
Runout is acceptable (better than the Lyndex ones). A few in the set had
dinged threads but Enco replaced them without a hassle. I supplemented this
cheap set with a selected number of Hardinge collets in the common sizes I
use often (1", 3/4", 1/2", 3/8").

Having the full set of sizes is great for one off and quick repair type
work- I know I can grip any size round workpiece from 1-1/8" on down,
without having a collet compressed or expanded more than about 0.007" from
its nominal size. Compressing or expanding a collet that much is pushing it
a little bit, but as these are cheapo collets I don't sweat that, and this
approach has worked fine. I use the collets a lot more than I even thought I
would, and I'm using my 3 jaw a lot less now.

I also found that buying a low cost "collet block set" allows the collet set
to be very useful on my milling machine for holding round workpieces for
milling or drilling operations. The block set along with your standard
milling vise gives you quick simple indexing and angle setup capabilities,
definitely a lot of bang for the buck for the low cost of the collet block
set (less than $50).

Good luck-

Paul T.