Hey Anthony, not rude at all! I was just thinking aloud about what I ought to do for my lathe. I hadn't though about passing stock through the collet before when I was considering R8.
I did a lookup on 5C collet chucks, and they're too expensive for me to be able to buy. $250 and without a backing plate.
I was thinking of something like Doubleboost's ER collet holder for me. Where mine fit over the spindle threads and register. It wouldn't be as neat as John's ER because it would have to be much larger to accommodate the longer collets. And if it was 5C the pass through size would be limited to my lathe's spindle bore -- which is a lot less than the 5C range. I don't know if any of this is practical -- still an unformed general wish rather than Plan A.
