- Hello and welcome to
this Haas Tip of the Day. Now, we know what this is. It's an ER collet, and it seems like half of the rotating tools that we use in our mills and our live-tooling lathes are being held in one of these collets. That makes these a critical part of our manufacturing process and something worth understanding. Now, there are lots of moving parts in our ER collet holders, and each one of those pieces
can either make our tools cut better or worse, so stick around. (bright music) This is an ER collet tool holder, the most-used tooling system known to man. Now, they've seen constant improvements since they were first
introduced by Rego-Fix in 1972. They've since become a den standard. Now, I think they're so
popular because one size holder can hold an entire range of tools just by exchanging the collets. Other types of holders,
like shrink fit holders, can only hold one particular size of tool, meaning that you need a whole
bunch of different holders. That can get expensive. When we set up a tool in an ER holder, we're looking for two things. Number one, we wanna
maximize the clamping force transferred to that tool by the collet and the collet nut. And number two, we're looking for the minimum amount of runout or TIR. When I say TIR, I mean
Total Indicator Reading. This is a complete range
of runout, or wobble, measured at a given point on your tool. Now, we can measure this in the machine with a mag base and an indicator or on an offline tool pre-setter. A strong tool clamping
force dampens vibration allowing us to run at higher RPMs and it lessens chatter. And a tool that's running
true with very little runout will wear more evenly, lasting longer and giving us
better parts surface finishes with all of the flutes doing
the same amount of work. Wobbly tools can also cut oversize, which can put us out of tolerance and force us to scrap out our parts, so we've got some really good reasons to set up our ER tools properly. ER collet systems come in different sizes and different levels of precision, but in a nutshell, there are eight different
sizes of collets, there are four different styles
of the collets themselves, and four different styles of collet nuts. And it doesn't take forever
to learn this stuff. We're going to start
with out collet holders. ER holders come in different sizes based on the collets they can hold, ranging from ER 8 all the way up to ER 50. Now, this is driving some of you crazy. I'm only showing you seven
different collets here. Well, that's because I don't
have an ER 50 collet on hand. I'm not going to buy
one just for the video because I don't use them every day. Here, better? (trombone music) Our ER numbers can be found just by measuring the holder cavity. If we measure 16 millimeters in diameter, then we've got an ER 16 holder. 32 millimeters, we've got an ER 32. We can also measure the outside
of our collets, as well. We'll choose our ER holder based on our tool's shank diameter and the reach and clearance
that that tool might need. A tool in this holder is
gonna cut better and faster than a tool in this holder. The only time I'd want to
use this instead of this is if I need the reach or the clearance. Now, sometimes we don't
have a choice in the matter. Sometimes we've gotta get
creative because our part, or our fixturing, demand it. Now, here's a chart for you,
showing the maximum tool sizes, that's shank diameter, that can fit in any ER holder class. Now, lots of tooling vendors make collets that are just slightly larger than the numbers we've shown you, but these are great generic values. Once we've decided on our
tool and an ER holder class, it's time to choose our
collets and our collet nut. Now, this is really important. Our decision here is
going to have a big impact on how those tools run. Here we've got four different
styles of ER collets for you, each with its own special use. Right away, you can see a difference between these four collets. We've got our 16-slot standard collets with a one millimeter collapse range. We've got our 12- or 16-slot
high-performance collets. Many of these collets come
with colored bands on them to set them apart from their
standard collet brothers. We've got our tapping collets. Those have eight slots: four on the top and four on the bottom. And you can also see a square
receiver in the bottom of it which'll match up to our taps
to keep them from spinning. Then we've got our sealed collets. These channel the coolant through our through-spindle coolant tools. We can use a standard 16-slot
collet for just about anything from drills to reams to end mills. Now, one of these standard collets is good for about 10 microns of TIR, or about 4/10 of a thousandths of an inch. Most are better than that, though. We'll use our high-performance collets for detailed features
or performance tools, or just when we wanna extend the tool life of a tool for production. But then again, when do we
not want longer tool life? Okay, these high-performance collets might have five micron of runout, or 2/10 of a thousandths of an inch. With some, like this Parlec ERos system, built to hold just 2 microns. That's 1/10 of a thousandths
of an inch of TIR. That puts this holder on
par with most hydraulic and shrink fit holders but with the adaptability
of an ER collet system. Now, there are a lot of different brands of high-end collets and
collet holding systems out there, so check around. Here's my 12-millimeter end mill, and from the chart that
we showed you earlier, we know that it could
fit into an ER20 holder but we've decided to go with
the much larger ER32 holder for a better hold. Now let's take a field
trip and grab that collet. So this is one of our
many vending machines here at the factory, and I can look on my
chart here and I can see that my ER32 collet for
a 12-millimeter end mill is in slot number 36. So I can just issue that out. And you can see right
here on the end of our box it says 12 for my 12-millimeter end mill. But is this a plus or minus number? Can we go bigger than that with my tools? Smaller, how does this work? If we open up the collet and we read it, you can see that this
collet is good for a tool that's between 12 and 11
millimeters in diameter. It's written right on the collet. Now, looking at our chart, it looks like all of these collets are good for a 1-millimeter range. Here's how these collets work. They are meant to collapse, not to expand. If you find a collet that says 12 on it, it's not good for anything
bigger than 12 millimeters. It's good for 12 to 11,
even if it doesn't say it. Well, let's go back to the bench. Now we want to use... (laughs) it was really loud over there. It's much quieter over here. We're gonna use the
tightest collet available for the tool that we're gonna use. This is gonna give us the most tool-to-collet contact area and the best runout. Now, we're using a 12-millimeter tool, so we're going to use the 12 to 11 collet and not the 13, 12 collet. Now, a lot of high-precision collets are actually on-size collets. They're meant to be used
with a certain size tool. Some collets, high-precision
or not, might only have a 1/2 millimeter collapse range. So always look at the collet, make sure you read the number, and you understand how that works. But what if my tool is just
10 thousandths of an inch bigger than my collet? I can still make it fit, right? No, you can ruin your collet. (dangerous music) Now, we have our tool,
our holder, our collet. Now we need our collet nut. And these nuts come in four basic flavors. We've got our flush nut,
our low-friction nuts, our coolant nuts, and our mini-nuts. Now, there are lots of
different types beyond this but these are the basics. Flush nuts are the least expensive, but they're strong and
they're great for general use. They're called flush
nuts because the collet comes flush with the face
of the nut, which is great if you don't wanna have
to stick out your tool any further than necessary. Low-friction nuts make
use of bearings, bushings, or special coatings to reduce friction on that 30-degree surface
where the top of the nut makes contact with our collet. Now, this helps us to give
more transferrable torque right to the tool. This makes a difference. We can actually get 50 to
100% more tool-holding force directed right onto our tool. This makes a big
difference when machining. If you have a ball-nosed
tool and an ER collet and I had my choice between
a standard flush nut or one of these friction-bearing nuts, I am definitely going with this nut. Every manufacturer has
their own version of them. This is a Parlec power nut. You've got the Rego-Fix ERBs, you've got the Lyndex bearing nuts. So check with your manufacturer. You definitely wanna know the
difference between this nut and this nut. They also require different torque values. And behind door number
three are our coolant nuts which make use of these coolant disks, making them ideal for
through-spindle coolant tools. Now these coolant disks, or sealing disks, come in 0.5 millimeter ranges to perfectly seal for every tool size. When we load up these
disks, they just snap in from the underside of the collet. Now when we load our tools, we want to load those from
the top side of the collet. If we load them from the bottom up, they could damage the O-ring on our disk. Now, low-friction nuts have
better tool holding power than a coolant nut or even a flush nut. So what if I wanna run TSC
through a spindle coolant but I want all the tool-holding power of the power nut? You can do this without a coolant disk if you use one of those
fancy sealed collets that we showed you earlier. In fact, there are collets out there like this Jet 2 collet from ISCAR that can turn any tool
into a TSC tool, kind of. The collet is sealed, but
special grooves have been added to direct the coolant right
at the tip of the tool. Now, you can run TSC through
a standard collet as well, and it'll help out quite a bit. These specially-designed
collet nuts and collets are just better at getting the coolant right where it needs to be. Finally, we've got our mini-nuts. Now, these function in much the same way as a typical flush nut, but they have a smaller diameter. All of these collet nuts
here are for an ER16, but you can see that
our typical hex ER16 nut is just under 28 millimeters. A good nut. These mini-nuts are under 22 millimeters for an ER16, so I can reach into spaces that I couldn't otherwise. That makes these type of
extensions with mini-nuts ideal for my live-tool tooling. With all of our components ready, it's time for us to assemble everything. We need to keep our collets clean and dry when we assemble things. Now, you can use a
degreaser or even alcohol to clean off grungy collets. And now, we're using a brand-new collet, so it has that thick, waxy
rust preventative on it that we're gonna have to get rid of. We'll want to clean off our holder and our collet nuts as well. Now, I'll use a lint-free cloth with some rust preventative on it. I use Castrol Rustilo. That's what we have here at the factory. And I will go ahead and
wipe down the threads. Now, this is why I do that,
and I don't do it all the time. Earlier we showed you this
high-performance collet. This is a five micron collet,
a good collet, from Parlec. And it's got a high polish
on the outside wall. They didn't spend quite as much
time on the ID polishing it. And there's a reason for that:
because they want the outside to slip nicely against
the inside of the holder, low friction, but they
want the ID of the collet to have more friction, a rougher surface to hold onto our tool. This is why you don't want to
soak an entire collet with oil and leave them that way. That's great when they're on the shelf. If the ID of this collet
is just soaking with oil, it's going to have less hold on your tool, and your tool will be
more likely to pull out. But when they go into
our holder, we want them typically clean and dry. If you find a damaged collet
or a collet nut or holder, get rid of it. You don't want that thing in your shop. It'll work its way from
tool holder to tool holder, ruining everything you've got. So if you see a bad part, don't set it aside for later. Get it out of your shop. Most collets have an
eccentric extractor ring, a lip that helps pull out the
ER collet during disassembly. This can make them hard to put together or take apart if you
don't know the secret. Most collet nuts have a mark
on the bottom of the nuts, or on the rotating friction ring, that shows us our pivot points
for loading the collets. Tilt the collet, load it at an angle, tucking it behind that extractor lip, then tilt it up. If it is too difficult, we may be tilting it the wrong way. Rotate the nut in your hand until the collet just snaps in. But we never, never, never,
never, ever set the cullet onto the holder and screw the nut on. We can break our nut and
we can damage the collet. Ideally, when we load up a tool, we're gonna be holding on to it by the entire length of the collet. Or at least, two-thirds of that collet. Now, you can use a tool, the
weldon shank, but you may lose some clamping force. But never let the gap
on the weldon shank tool hang over the edge of
the face of the collet. And if running a drill,
never clamp on the flutes. One last thing about loading
up tools in an ER collet. Right here in the center
is a back-up screw. If you drive your tool all the
way up against the back of a holder and then tighten your collet, it could force your tool to
wobble, causing us runout. You don't want that. So, normally we don't want
the tool set all the way up against the back-up screw
as we tighten that nut. We want to leave some room,
and then we can come back later and gently move that
back-up screw up against the back of the tool, if we really need to. This has an Allen wrench
in the front, and we can reach it with a flat-blade
screwdriver from the back through the TSC pull stud, now I said TSC. Now, take a look at this guy. Look how small the hole is through this particular back-up screw. If you're running a TSC
drill that needs lots of volume of through-spindle coolant, you're better off removing
this back-up screw altogether. All it's doing is choking
your coolant flow. When I load up tools that other people have assembled, I always look at the gap, the slots, in the collets. If you don't see any
visible gaps in the collet, then the last set-up person
might have chosen a collet that's too large for the tool. If the gaps are really
big, they might have chosen a collet that's too small for the tool. Either way, take everything
apart, make sure you're using the right sized collet, clean everything, and
put it back together. Now if you see a collet where
all the gaps are uneven, something's gone really bad, OK? They didn't clean or
assemble the tool properly, or they over-torqued this nut, causing the collet to twist badly. In that case, take everything
apart, and also check to make sure that your nut is not cracked. That's why it is always a good idea to use a torque wrench to tighten
down those collet nuts. Even here in our own
machine shop, we're using torque wrenches with adapters to tighten all of our collet nuts, doesn't matter what style. Now we mentioned earlier
that low-friction nuts take less torque to tighten
than a standard flush nut, and many nuts take even
less torque than that. So here's my list of some
generic torque values that you can use with most holders. But if you use these values,
you might be leaving something on the table, they might not
be perfect for your tools. In the description of the
YouTube version of this video, we'll give some links to
different tooling manufacturers with their actual torque specs. There're some great websites out there for each manufacturer, check em out. The torque specs from the
manufacturers are based on the largest tool
that'll fit in that collet. Now as we use smaller and
smaller tools, we'll wanna use less and less torque. Essentially, you'll wanna
take it easy on tools that are smaller than about four
millimeters or 3/16ths of an inch. Now if you're tightening
up those tools by hand, you'll wanna use one of
these slotted wrenches. We've got spanner wrenches
as well, I prefer the slotted wrenches, they give you a
better hold on the collet nuts. They come in all different sizes. We also have these non-slip versions, these are really popular and an AX wrench for our live tooling. And we've got our Castle
wrenches, our ERM wrenches, which we use on mini-nuts,
we don't need much torque on these guys at all. Remember those polished collets
that we showed you earlier? They were great because they
reduced friction between the collet and the nut in the holder. If I've got a corroded
collet, then I'm not gonna throw it away, typically,
right, 'cause I'm cheap. I'll take a Scotch-Brite
Pad or a light abrasive pad, and some rust preventative and I'll clean off that surface rust. But by doing so, I'm making the surface of my collet more porous,
which means it's just more likely to rust in the future. Not only that, but with
that more porous surface, we're gonna add friction
into our ER system which is bad for runout. So I keep em, I use em, but I don't use em on tight tolerance tools. Which brings us back to
rust preventative, right? You wanna come up to the
collets in your rack, we're using a rack so the collets don't damage each other, but
we wanna come up to these collets every now and
then and wipe them down with a rust preventative. This is kinda the take away of this video: make sure you keep your
unused collets well-oiled so they don't get damaged with corrosion. Make sure that you're using the right collet nut for the job,
whether you're using a low-friction nut, flush nut,
coolant nut, and make sure those things are clean and dry
when you assemble them right? Or maybe a light sweeping of
oil around the outside of your collet or on the threads. And torque those collet nuts as necessary. That's it. We'll be looking forward
to seeing you next time in the next Haas tip of the day. (bright electronic music)
