1-2-3 gage blocks? purpose?

[tauntdesigns]

If your talking about locating a part on the table and you're not cutting thru anywhere....

A 3-point way of positioning a block/part on the table.
Turn some pins that fit the t-slots snug (a light tap with a mallet snug) put 2 pins in the slot for butting part against. That will locate the part in the Y direction, parallel to the X table.
Take a small piece of material and drill a hole you can put a bolt thru and bolt it to the table with the corner of the block sticking out towards the part to locate in the X direction.

Cheers,

[merl]

several years ago the shop I work at baught a large boring bar and all the goodeis that went with it for a very good price. It took three trips with the five ton flat bed truck to get it all and one entire load was nothing but crates full of 123, 234, 246 and 468 blocks and a wide veriaty of other risers, angle plates tomb stones ect...
All of the blocks were hardend, and match ground and set numberd and only the 468 blocks were drilled out for weight reduction!
We couldn't believe it when we opend those crates and saw all those beutiful precision blocks!
Get on a boring bar sometime and you will know exactlly what those blocks are for.
BTW most people consider the cheep made in china junk as "kits" that is you get them and take them right to the surface grinder and finish grind them.
If you consider the time you will spend truing the cheep blocks up you will relise you should have just got the better ones to begin with. Also if you get any Starrett stuff that says "globel series" on it you'll know it was made in china (or worse)
I have several thousand $ worth of stuff between what I have at work and at home, most of it Brown and Sharpe but if I were to buy any new B&S I couldn't be garrenteed it wasn't M.I.C. (or worse )
I have a few sets of B&S 123 blocks, they all have those same 3/8-16 theaded holes and too long bolts in the sets, I don't know what they're for either.
Someone should ask Geof or Widgit Master, they might know.

[HapSmo19]

Originally Posted by merl several years ago the shop I work at baught a large boring bar and all the goodeis that went with it for a very good price. It took three trips with the five ton flat bed truck to get it all and one entire load was nothing but crates full of 123, 234, 246 and 468 blocks and a wide veriaty of other risers, angle plates tomb stones ect... Get on a boring bar sometime and you will know exactlly what those blocks are for.

say wah...........

[MrWild]

Make your own. Sure, you may not have a grinder to get super precise, but most times you are using them as work horses not measuring. I made three sets of 1,2,3 blocks while iwas a T&D and all three sets have different hole patterns. The ones that seem to get used most often are the ones with five 17/32 counter bored holes for use in bridgeport size mills. Being able to bolt them solidly to a face plate can help with set ups and balancing for higher RPMS.

[tauntdesigns]

Originally Posted by HapSmo19 say wah...........

Jig bore machine

[ZipSnipe]

One more time, sorry I don't have a real pic of the set up. As for as reaming the holes bigger, I did mine on a Bridgeport with a very accurate DRO.
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/attach...1&d=1203005991
123.JPG

p.s. in this example the blocks are just laying on the table supporting the workpiece, they are not bolted to the table. You should really never need to bolt it to the table. They are really just simple helpers for setting up jobs. In fact if ya bolt it to the table and a seasoned machinist walks by and sees it, he'll probably grin to his self and shake his head.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

You guys just aren't old enough. lol The 1-2-3 blocks I used had 5/16" threaded holes. The non-threaded hole were clearance holes for 5/16" capscrews that were counterbored on one side for the heads. The accuracy for "shop" blocks was square, parallel and size within a +.0003",-.0000" envelope (lapping stock left on). Inspection grade blocks only had a few holes in them and were lapped square, parallel and size within .0001" I think Starrett still sells the inspection grade blocks.


Dick Z

[Andre' B]

Originally Posted by RICHARD ZASTROW You guys just aren't old enough. lol The 1-2-3 blocks I used had 5/16" threaded holes. The non-threaded hole were clearance holes for 5/16" capscrews that were counterbored on one side for the heads. The accuracy for "shop" blocks was square, parallel and size within a +.0003",-.0000" envelope (lapping stock left on). Inspection grade blocks only had a few holes in them and were lapped square, parallel and size within .0001" I think Starrett still sells the inspection grade blocks. Dick Z

Yep, so you can bolt them together however you need to.
These guys need to think back to when they were crawling on the floor playing with wooden blocks. You use 1-2-3 blocks the same way, for whatever you need to do at the moment.

I think one of the problems with the cheap stuff like this, now days is the manufacture really has no idea how the stuff is intended to be used. They are just making copies.

I just looked at getting some Starrett 123s, a single block 64Rc, 0.0001" parallel and square is about $220.00 and a matched pair is close to $500.00

[Geof]

Originally Posted by ZipSnipe ...p.s. in this example the blocks are just laying on the table supporting the workpiece, they are not bolted to the table. You should really never need to bolt it to the table. They are really just simple helpers for setting up jobs......

I am glad you wrote this. I have only ever used them this way and it did not sound technical enough .

One application I did find them useful for was levelling long stock off the table when gripping it in a cheap vise. Put one on each side of the vise so the stock rest onthem not on the bottom of the vise.

[fatal-exception]

thanks Dick, I feel young now. I still dont get it. If I were to design a 1-2-3 block, the thru holes would be big enough for the same sized tapped holes clearance. I probably wouldn't make them precision since their purpose is to boltndown and have some adjustability with the mating surface. Reaming them is out of the question.

Maybe I'm too young and expecting to use them in a non traditional way?

Paul

[MrWild]

The only important facter when used as set up blocks is that they are equal in size. You don't want to instill a taper cut with one low and one high block.