Small 10-20-40 blocks that actually work

[John Stevenson]

Plus 20-40-80's

Come on lads get your hard earned coin out and get splashing.

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Workholding/Vee-Blocks-Angle-Plates

Top of the page.

Bit of history first, the original 1-2-3 blacks were made by Starrett and the idea was they bolted together to form angle, tee's, used as packing or to bolt items to to preserve squareness.

One of those items that never had a specific designed use but was different thing to different people, very useful.

However at some stage these blocks went over to Taiwan and were copied but they drilled all the holes tapping size for 3/8" UNC, tapped some then hardened and ground them before changing the un-tapped holes to clearance holes.
Result is they wont bolt together as designed and since then millions of sets have been copied and made in India,  and China. Even the Starrett ones are now wrong as they have them made out.

Another problem even for people with decent sized machines is they are too large, at 1" high they are 2" wide and at 1" wide they are usually taller than the average vise.

Soooooooooo, may I present these blocks above?

Again hardened and ground but they CAN bolt together and are of a size to suit most muddle enjuneers.

Listed as The Stevenson blocks because that cretin Ketan at ARC is still pissed off I gave him a quid for a nearly new X3 CNC mill and I told him not to name them after me. Wouldn't have been bad if I got royalties but the tight bastard wants the mill back first and not prepared to give me the quid back.

Seriously nice bit of kit and my pre production set has been in use daily for the last couple of months, in fact the 1-2-3's haven't been out the drawer.

Full marks to Ketan for listening and getting something done about them.

John S.

[GerryB]

G.Day John,
Just received a set of 1.2.3.Blocks from CDCO.(Made in China)
They are the same size as your 20.40 80 mm.
The difference in cost may surprise you.
I do realize that you are in the UK and CDCO is in the USA.
GerryB

[DaveH]

Hello John,

Arc says they are 10-20-40
 
DaveH

[John Stevenson]

Gerry,
If they are 1" - 2" - 3" how can they be 20mm - 40mm - 80mm ?
I know there are a lot of cheap 123 blocks out there but they won't bolt together.

Dave,
They do two sets 10-20-40 and 20-40-80

John S.

[andyf]

I'll ask for a set when I write my letter to Santa, John. Thanks for the tip-off.

Gerry: are the unthreaded holes in yours drilled clearance size for bolts to hold them together, or are they the pilot size for taps so you can't get a bolt through them?

Andy

[HS93]

mine are now on order..with Arc Euro.

Peter

[Miner]

Awesome Sir John, Now we just need a set for the unwashed heathens who still work/think in Imperial like me. 1"X2"X3" and 5/16ths or 3/8ths thread. But even without that, It's great to see someone has finally worked on a fix for a huge problem that never should have happened. Every manufacter knows the reason they won't bolt togeather, But no one would fix the problem till now.

Pete

[DMIOM]

Hello John,

Arc says they are 10-20-40
 
DaveH

...........
Dave,
They do two sets 10-20-40 and 20-40-80.....

John,
I think what Dave H was querying was that the title of the thread was "Small 10-20-30 blocks..."
cheers / Dave M.

[John Stevenson]

OOps.

There are 10-20-40, My mistake.

I'll see if I can edit the title.

John S.

[Henning]

That was an early christmas present to myself sorted, then!
 
I can see a lot of easier setup in my future 

Mr. Stevenson and ARC you rock! 

[sbwhart]

Got mine ordered,

Bin after those little roosters for some time, I've got the dodgy hole ones and a keep cussing that they are not correct, also bin after a small cube but I recon these will do that job as well.

Good one John 

Stew

[Spurry]

Those items have just moved to the top of my Christmas list. Thanks John.

It's well overdue for someone to make something metric for a change, with proper metric screws/bolts. Are we on the way to metrication..... :-)

Pete

[Bernd]

Why would you want 10" X 20" X 40" blocks. 

Running, ducking and finding cover.         

Bernd

[sparky961]

Thanks for the history.  I've always figured I was just missing the point of the threaded holes but now I see that's not quite the case.

For all of the setups I've ever used the standard 1-2-3 blocks for, the holes were completely unnecessary!


Although I like the idea of a smarter "general purpose" block of whatever size, there are way too many cheap ones out there of the 1-2-3 style to just discard them.  Perhaps a thread showing the various creative ways everyone uses their 1-2-3 blocks would be in order?

-Sparky

[jim]

typical!

just had a £300+ order come on monday!!!

 

[HS93]

I ordered some and the postage was only £2 . Bargin considering they are big chunks of metal, there postage has always been reasonable, allthough some UK stores are doing Free postage, this is handy as you don't worry and just buy when needed, so I then tend to buy a lot more but in small orders.

Peter

[Pete.]

Just ordered one set of each size

[GerryB]

 
G.Day John, I do apologise for stating that the 1,2,3.blocks i purchased were the same as your 20.40 80. i jumped to the conclusion when i measured the blocks whilst they were still in their packaging.
I also found that the threads were 3/8UNC,
Now this is a very common thread somewhere on this Planet!
I cannot for the life of me understand why a Manufacturer of these Blocks would go in to production and turn out items that were useless for the purpose that they were intended.
Also why Harden them?
Yes Andy you are correct in thinking that the holes for the bolts to go through are sized for tapping.
Now i realise that i have purchased a block that will not do what they were intended for but then again i have two of them.
I am sure that with a little thinking some one out there has the answer to the problem of unhardening the blocks and to open out the offending holes,they do not have to be rehardened.
GerryB

[John Stevenson]

Gerry,
This is an idea that I have had for a while. In all the time that I have had my two sets the fact that they are hardened has never been a deciding issue, in fact a lot of my parallels are unhardened.
 I look on the fact that if they get dinged they can soon be dressed up and it won't have cost me a cutter if I make the odd mistake.

The fact that they are exactly 123 is also a disadvantage as I have never had to rely on an exact size. The disadvantage to me is that if I use one in a vise as packing with a 1" bar is it gripping the block or the bar, I find that with my home made packings that a quick lick on the surface grinder to purposely go under stock size is an advantage.

Next time I do to the hardening shop I'll get these annealed and do what I have been promising for ages, tap some holes first as their selection isn't what I would choose, then drill the rest out.
Finally a quick lick all round on the grinder.

John S

[Deko]

You should'nt have said all that John !   I now have a vision of you peering over a mountain of 123 blocks, and thinking what the hell have i done.   

[sbwhart]

Great job with the blocks John

For you'r next little project how about a small cube  80*50*50 ish:- Elipse use to do an imperial one and i've been trying to get my sticky mits on one for ages, but they are as scares as rocking horse turds.

Stew

[AndyB]

Thanks John,

Got my set of each on order (had to have them delivered to work as ARC will not accept any postage where they can't get a signature! Don't they realise that some of us have to work? )

Stew,

Great idea, I would have one of those too.

Andy

[Ned Ludd]

Hi Stew,
If you are going to Sandown, you might find a homemade "copy" on the SMEE stand. They are not difficult to make, just time consuming.
Ned

[Pete.]

Got mine today - the smaller ones wring together on the thin edge so they aren't half bad - easily good enough to satisfy my meagre skills.

[PeterE]

I have been thinking of such blocks for a longer time. At one point I contemplated on making a pair since I have a ground 25x50 mm bar to hand, but time has yet to be found.   

I therefore ordered  a small set as they seem to be extremely useful when setting up.   

BR

/Peter

[tumutbound]

Much that I'd like some of these to go with my new shed, $67 postage is a bit steep for me!

[ketanswali]

Just a little update:

Yesterday, a customer brought up the hardness issue of the blocks to my attention. I reffered this to the engineers at the production factory.

The blocks have been heat treated to HRC25-HRC28, which is at the low end of the hardening process. The engineers have taken this decision as it allows the end user to make any changes to the blocks as they so wish.

We made a mistake by referring to them as hardened, rather than toughened. This has now been rectified on our website, however, the advert which appears in MEW 184 still incorrectly states hardened.
For all customer who are ordering with effect from 23rd November 2011 over the phone, we are clarifying this point pre-sale. Our selling prices remain the same.

We apologise to all customers who have purchased this item prior to 23rd November with the understanding that they are hardened to normal “rock hard” treatment to be found with traditional 1-2-3 blocks.
In this respect, if anyone wishes to return their blocks due to this misunderstanding, we are happy to accept their return, and we will pay for return carriage costs to us.
If you wish to do this, please call us first to enable us to log and agree to the return, along with carriage costs.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused effected customers.

Ketan at ARC.

[sbwhart]

Ketan

Better being tough than hard, that way if you cut into them all you've got is a mark in the blocks not a blunt tool and posibly a scrap part.

Stew

[fatal-exception]

Thanks John for the original post. I've always thought that those 1-2-3 blocks were made wrong, well, at least not as useful as they could be. I've asked a few other machinists about the untapped holes and whether they should be clearance holes and none of them have ever seen them made that way. Being slightly undersized as you mentioned is also a very good idea.

Maybe someone should make a set and send them to China and India so that they start making them the correct way!

Paul