[Ozinus]

I just bought a new Taig and to my suprise they are shipped without any collets,
Where is the best place to get them and what is a reasonable price.
I also bought the hightechsystems quick change collet set however is does not fit the ER spindle.
The only way I will make chips this weekend will be with a file.

Ozinus

[Smertrios]

I bought my collects from this place they about $9.00 each but probably a bit more after adding in the s/h. This guy ships out fast to I ordered an CR ER-16 mill with 5 collects and had it at my door in 4 days.
http://www.timgoldstein.com/secure/e...Accessory+Mill

Just in case your looking for tooling... I ordered $150.00 worth of tooling from www.procarbide.com 4 days ago... its here!. $150.00 for 12 carbide tools isn't bad when compared to the "big guys" is actually 1/2 to 1/4 the price.

I'm still looking for a good source of cheap inspection tools if you know of one I would really be interested in knowing. I am kicking myself in the butt (not literally LOL) for not book marking a website I found with wicked cheap measuring tools. They had metal calipers with dials for $6, test indicators for $8, drop indicators for ???cheap??? etc.

[Mcgyver]

my advice is look for a web site with expensive measuring and inspection tools - cheap tools are a false economy, especially where precision is concerned. Buy a cheapo tap handle, but buy a starrett (or like) mic

[ViperTX]

use-enco.com

[PeteZ28]

my advise is look for a web site with expensive measuring and inspection tools - cheap tools are a false economy, especially where precision is concerned. Buy a cheapo tap handle, but buy a starrett (or like) mic

Not as much as you might think. Starret used to be a great company but IMO their quality has fallen off considerably. I bought a Starret 6" dial caliper about 9 years ago, within a year it was a pile of crap. The measuring jaws were worn about .001 per side, they were never very smooth, the rack doesn't have a chip guard on it so it was constantly jumping the rack, the repeatability was horrible, I could go on forever. All I can say was the cheapie $30 flea market import calipers I had prior to that were light years better and more durable.

Brown & Sharpe is another company who I was very disappointed in. I purchased a set of B&S 1-2-3 blocks and the quality was horrible. They looked like they were finished on a belt sander with an 80 grit belt; took me hours of hand lapping to get an acceptable finish on them and the hardness was never there. I have several fairly noticable dents in them from chips getting stuck between them and a mill vice.

The best measuring tools out there now are probably Mitutoyo. They're comparable or slightly less in price than Starret from most vendors. I have Starret, B&S, and Mitutoyo mikes. The Mitutoyos are by far the smoothest and most accurate I own. However I also have a no-name Chinese brand 0-1 carbide faced .0001 mike that is my workhorse. I got it used about 12 years ago and it's still holding accuracy today. My 1-2" Starret is bordering on C-clamp status.

Don't get me wrong, I have some OLD Starret and B&S tools that I wouldn't trade for the world, but things have changed. I worked in shops for 10 years and now work for a CNC company and visit a lot of shops. Seems like everyone now is using almost exclusively Mitutoyo tools.

[Mcgyver]

Pete, point taken, all co's are forced to reduce costs and who knows what qc has slipped or what is being outsourced. I've a lot of Mitutoyo and put them in the "(or like)" league with my Starrett and B&S & M&W stuff, but our friend isn't buying Mitutoyo calipers @ $6 - you still get what you pay for (agreed the correlation isn't always perfect) but measuring is not where I’d cheap out.

To you guys starting off with these lathes, keep in mind a light lathe can't really take advantage of carbide, Consider reversing it and spend the $6 on some hss bits and the $150 on a quality mic (calipers are handy but get a mic first, remember the other name for vernier’s is very-nears). With a simple grinder, you'll have sharp tools long after the carbide has chipped or dulled and you'd produce more accurate results working with better measuring tools - just a suggestion