Collet holder for lathe question

Pretty sure the seller is CDCO Machinery Corp. in Schaumburg, IL. They have mixed reviews on the web. The "guy" that answers the phone is said to sound oriental and hard to understand. I'm sure they are Chinese made, usually some are fine, some not so good. The reviews show returns or replacements a hassle with the "guy".

Linebaugh..............Let me know how you like it! I was always considering getting one but the fact I would only occasionally use it and the price was a deterrent. At that price I might consider getting one. I already have the collet set which I use on a collet vise for the mill.

Thanks, waiting for a good report!

Thanks for the update!

You can get a 3 jaw that is adjustable (Buck)chuck style you may be happy with. You have to adjust it. Collets are okay if .001 total indicator reading is good enough. Get yourself a drill chuck, put a straight shank in it and chuck it in your 4 jaw for small parts. I'm always leery about Chinese products, they may come up to American standards but probably not in my lifetime. With that said, Japan did and make some great products.

I wish it was that easy. I adjusted the pins 3 ways from Sunday and then I realized the head would not seat no matter how we approached it. The D1-4 taper cut on that head was not cut correct and would not allow the head to seat all the way down.
Replacement should be here tomorrow. We shall see.

Well the replacement came today. If you don't want to read any further then please note that I am absolutely not impressed and do not endorse buying.

Fishhawk was spot on with his prediction and the company. Sent the first one back because the taper in the head would not fit over the taper on my lathe d1-4. It was a thousandths or so off (tight) and it would not seat.
The new one came and to no real surprise this one was also tight but pretty close to seating. I was able to set it up in my 4 jaw chuck and after the better part of an hour I had the horizontal and vertical -0- out. I then took 400 grit sand paper and some panther piss and polished out the head. I knew this one was close and really didnt want to cut the taper but was pretty sure I was not going to get it polished enough to make it seat. So after about 20 minutes of polishing I gave it a try...
Worked and fit like a glove. I adjusted the depth of the pins for proper dog engagement and then checked the run out on the taper. It was .004ish off. I changed the head position by rotating and got it down to .003ish.

Okay so now I'm in too deep to back up so I set the toolpost to 10 degrees and used a boring bar to true up the taper. After truing I had -0- run out. Using a name brand 5c collet and a reamer stem to test the accuracy I had less than .0005 run out. I did not try it with the cheap china collets.

At any rate after all that messing around I guess all is well. As I said in the beginning I could not in good consience recommend this to anyone but given the price and the fact I made it work I guess it's up to the buyers decision.


I will say that I used the new collet holder for about an hour today and it does work well and is pretty darn convenient. Beats the pants off of the 4 jaw set up ajd the 3 jaws poor accuracy.

Hope that helps someone out.