Expanding Collet Case Study

Had a customer call today ( I’ll call him Bob) inquiring about an application that involved holding on to a Plastic part that was .750” on the OD and had an ID of .400”.  The overall length of the part was 1.900”

Bob was using another manufacturer’s 5C Expanding Collet System and having trouble with chatter.  The other supplier did not offer a collet that could be machined down to hold the .400” ID, with a length of 2.00”. After going over his application I determined that our 1×2-2 Expanding Collet would work best for him, the following is why:

For starters, Bob could not use a live center to support the other end, as he had to do machine work on the front face of the part. As you can see in the photo above, this collet is not split all the way back to the shoulder. The reason for this is, the expanding collet expands primarily up at the front. The back (Toward the shoulder) is used for support.  This gives the collet more rigidity, which will eliminate the chatter that Bob was experiencing. Please feel free to contact us with your workholding applications.