ID this mystery metal block?
June 13, 2011 10:54 AM Subscribe
Seen at a tag sale: A small steel block, maybe 4x2x2" with a bunch of identical size holes drilled through it in all three directions. Is this a tool or guide of some sort?
Top view looked like this, and also had three additional smaller holes in between the bigger ones:
OOOO
OOOO
End view looked like this:
OO
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It was on a table full of metalworking stuff like calipers and feeler gauges. Seller had no idea.
Top view looked like this, and also had three additional smaller holes in between the bigger ones:
OOOO
OOOO
End view looked like this:
OO
OO
It was on a table full of metalworking stuff like calipers and feeler gauges. Seller had no idea.
Riser blocks. They're used for clamping parts to a milling machine table for precise positioning.
posted by jon1270 at 11:01 AM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by jon1270 at 11:01 AM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: jon1270 has it; they're called 1-2-3 blocks, 2-4-6 blocks, and so on.
Google "1-2-3 block" to see a bunch of 'em. Used primarily in work-holding.
posted by aramaic at 11:03 AM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
Google "1-2-3 block" to see a bunch of 'em. Used primarily in work-holding.
posted by aramaic at 11:03 AM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
Yep, riser blocks. They're pretty much dead-nuts 1", 2", etc., flat and parallel. The holes are 1) to make the damn thing lighter, 2) so you can, with careful set-up, drill your workpiece with the bit punching through in one of the riser-block holes. Very handy to support your workpiece in this manner, since material flex is the #2 killer of machine tools (forcing it is #1).
posted by notsnot at 11:09 AM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by notsnot at 11:09 AM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
Were riser blocks by any chance a sort of standard exercise for machinists in training? they have somewhat that look.
posted by jamjam at 11:23 AM on June 13, 2011
posted by jamjam at 11:23 AM on June 13, 2011
Yes, they are/were sometimes an exercise for apprentices.
posted by fritley at 11:38 AM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by fritley at 11:38 AM on June 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Definitely answered, thanks. But I'm still a little unclear on what these are for. To get something exactly 1" off the milling table top?
posted by smackfu at 7:29 AM on June 14, 2011
posted by smackfu at 7:29 AM on June 14, 2011
They are useful for lots of things. Their primary features are that they're a known size (123 blocks are usually something like 1.0002 +- 0.0002, 2.0002 +- 0.0002, etc), and they are quite square and the faces are quite parallel. They come in sets of two (or more) that were ground together so their sizes match very well.
You can definitely use them to lift something off the mill's table a known amount. Often they have threaded holes, and you can bolt a small awkward workpiece to one and then put the block in the milling vise. Or you can bolt two blocks together to make a bigger square.
You can use their squareness to help machine a square feature on a part. You can use their known size to measure something. Recently I saw here a setup showing 123 blocks used to calibrate a gage to 4 inches tall.
For their simple appearance they're really quite useful in a machine shop. If you would ask ten machinists how they use them, you'd get ten different answers. I have used 246 blocks to hold down wood while the glue dries!
posted by fritley at 7:52 AM on June 14, 2011
You can definitely use them to lift something off the mill's table a known amount. Often they have threaded holes, and you can bolt a small awkward workpiece to one and then put the block in the milling vise. Or you can bolt two blocks together to make a bigger square.
You can use their squareness to help machine a square feature on a part. You can use their known size to measure something. Recently I saw here a setup showing 123 blocks used to calibrate a gage to 4 inches tall.
For their simple appearance they're really quite useful in a machine shop. If you would ask ten machinists how they use them, you'd get ten different answers. I have used 246 blocks to hold down wood while the glue dries!
posted by fritley at 7:52 AM on June 14, 2011
Like fritley says, it's hard to tell you the purpose of these because they are so very basic. It's like asking what a 2x4 is used for in carpentry; a 2x4 can be used for all sorts of 2x4-appropriate purposes.
When you start machining stuff, you realize that the blocks of material you start with are often very uneven. Castings in particular, especially those cast in single-use sand molds, can have all sorts of odd shapes and unevenness and few reference surfaces. Milling machines don't "see" the part being machined and adjust their movements according to its position; you have to clamp the part down in roughly the right orientation, machine a few surfaces to their final shape, and then you refer back to those machined surfaces as you reorient the part to machine other surfaces. For example, imagine you had a rough part with three flanges projecting from some blob-shaped central body. You could put each flange on a 1-2-3 block, clamp the whole mess down on a milling machine, mill the tops of the flanges nice and flat and coplanar, then flip the part over and clamp it down again with the freshly machined surfaces on the blocks. This sets you up to easily machine the other sides of the flanges and know that the two faces of each flange are now nice and parallel.
posted by jon1270 at 6:32 AM on June 15, 2011
When you start machining stuff, you realize that the blocks of material you start with are often very uneven. Castings in particular, especially those cast in single-use sand molds, can have all sorts of odd shapes and unevenness and few reference surfaces. Milling machines don't "see" the part being machined and adjust their movements according to its position; you have to clamp the part down in roughly the right orientation, machine a few surfaces to their final shape, and then you refer back to those machined surfaces as you reorient the part to machine other surfaces. For example, imagine you had a rough part with three flanges projecting from some blob-shaped central body. You could put each flange on a 1-2-3 block, clamp the whole mess down on a milling machine, mill the tops of the flanges nice and flat and coplanar, then flip the part over and clamp it down again with the freshly machined surfaces on the blocks. This sets you up to easily machine the other sides of the flanges and know that the two faces of each flange are now nice and parallel.
posted by jon1270 at 6:32 AM on June 15, 2011
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posted by brainmouse at 10:57 AM on June 13, 2011