5C collet chuck, direct mount D1-3 or backplate?

I've just watched Stefan Gotteswinter's YouTube video on inexpensive 5C collet chucks and he was very positive about them. His example at least was accurate and well made. I think one of these would be really useful in my workshop. My lathe has a D1-3 camlock spindle and these chucks are available with direct mount camlock fitting or a plain back for a backplate at about the same price. Direct mount camlock would be lighter, have less overhang and be cheaper as there is no backplate to buy but there would be no opportunity to adjust the concentricity of the chuck which you can do when mounting on a backplate. Not sure what to go for. Has anyone purchased one with the integral camlock fitting and how good was it?

Re camlock backplates, I've found that cheap ones can be very poor and not fit properly on the camlock taper. A decent one is £100...

Looks to be little difference in the price of plain back and D1-3 versions of the 5C collet carrier. Get a D1-3 direct fitting one and if it turns out not so good then buy a backplate and convert the beast. Probably only £20 or so to write off if you do have to convert.

I do wonder how hard it would be to recut the locating taper in a substandard D1-3 mount and adjust the thickness to suit.

If you don't have a stash of 5C collets maybe more cost effective to buy a backplate and switch to ER as the backplate mount holders seem sufficiently cheaper than 5C to more than cover the cost of a collet set.

I'd probably go ER if starting from scratch, spindexer'n all, but my main lathe has a native 5C spindle and I have full sets of both imperial (x 1/64" ) and metric (x 0.5 mm) 5C.

Clive

Edited By Clive Foster on 26/05/2020 16:41:40

Edited By Clive Foster on 26/05/2020 16:42:14

Edited By Clive Foster on 26/05/2020 16:42:33

I'd be inclined to follow Clive's advice and go for an ER set up.

I have a ER40 set up, more versatile than 5C, in my opinion.

Jim

A direct mount has one drawback, it cannot be adjusted like a separate backplate which can be turned true after fitting. A backplate will give you a choice of er or 5c, or both.

As a third alternative, which scores highly on compactness, can you procure a 5C to Morse adaptor and use the collets directly in the spindle?

Clearly, this needs a minimum of a 4.5 Morse spindle and a drawbar.

I do not have any 5C stuff, but one of the benefits of them is the ability to use an in-collet backstop. If this is important, it may be worth double checking that the backplate-mounted chucks do not impede this function.

Backstop works OK in my 5C on a backplate with a MT4 taper behind.

I find the shape of the 5C a lot nicer for close up work particularly if using a hand graver or even just knocking off a corner with a file as there is nothing to catch your fingers on.

Single key is a lot nicer than two spanners and square and hex holding is easy. 5C will easily hold short work approx 1mm which ER won't easily do. Also you will not get the problem that you do with ER of wanting to hold work in a fixture that is the same size as the cutter shank as you have two systems.

Some great suggestions, thanks.

As it happens I already have all the metric collects in 1mm increments so another reason to go with the 5C.

I will order the 5C chuck with the direct mount D1-3. Brilliant suggestion from Clive that if it turns out unsatisfactory I could just convert to backplate mount. Hadn't thought if that.