[Ray Cover]

Kurt,

I made mine out of ocatagonal brass stock, I made it a .002" oversize and I split it on both sides. I have not found a nickel yet that would not fit nicely. Before I took it out of the chuck I tried a couple dozen different nickels and they all fit fine. THe extra .002" gives enough that if a nickel is slightly oversized it still fits and... By splitting both sides if you do have one a few thousands under the extra slack is easily taken up without having enough slop to damage the coin.

There is not enough difference in these coins to need individual holders.
When I tested the two dozen when making my fixture they all measured between .833" and .837"

.004 is not enough difference that it cannot be taken up by a double split collet. I would think that a sampling of 24 coins would be plenty enough to get 99.99% of the coins out there.

I have found a few newer nickels that went down to .832" but your still only talking about .005" total range. That is beyond the repeatablity tolerence range of most lathes, I know your lathe probaly is tighter than that but you get my point.

If your collet were machined to .839" and you split each side it would hold any nickel you would ever find unless the nickel had bee dammaged in some way.

Ray

Ray