Adapter for Erickson Collets
© Frank Ford 2006; Photos by FF
Not long after I bought my first milling machine, the little Rusnok, I acquired a full set of collets on eBay so I could use drill bits without readjusting the height of the head to provide clearance for a chuck. The Rusnok uses Erickson double-angle collets that have a full 1/32" collapse while maintaining good concentricity, and my collet set runs the gamut from 1/16" to 9/16" in 1/64" increments so I have all the flexibility I want:
When I got my full size Bridgeport clone, I began to miss the ability to use small collets for drilling, so I started searching eBay for 1/64" incremental R8 collets. To date, I've yet to see a set I could afford, so I decided to adapt my Erickson collet set.
Tool suppliers must hate eBay, because it seems there's an unending supply of tooling available there for bargain prices. That's where I got this nice Erickson DA-100 collet extension:
A few minutes on the lathe, and I had a short stubby collet holder that fits nicely into a standard 7/8" R8 collet:
Once again I can mill and drill without a cumbersome height adjustment:
