Reply To: How to tell the spouse

@Arutha wrote:

Hi Ddhix, a 3 jaw chuck will not hold a collet correctly, a collet is drawn into a sleeve which ensures it closes equally around its entire diameter and making sure it stays acurate when holding the work, a 3 jaw chuck would only close on the collet in 3 places and would most likely damage it. The ER16 collet holders are fairly cheap and a must have, any sets of collets that are ER16 will suit that lathe.
I will leave David to answer your other questions as he has far more experience.
Paul.

That makes sense.

So instead of getting the ER-16 headstock, what about part 1045ER, the ER-16 adapter for the lathe? It’s only about $28 as opposed to $120. The only ER part that I could find that was $120 was the Headstock with ER Spindle for the Milling machine.
http://www.taigtools.com/c1045ER.html
http://www.taigtools.com/erspindle.html

Also, part 1040 is a collet set, and is not labeled as ER-16. Could this be used instead of ER-16 collets?
http://www.taigtools.com/c1040.html

Finally, they have part 1040ER, which is a 6-collet set in sizes: 1/16, 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, 5/16, 3/8 . Would this be preferable?