Story of the little discarded beat up Vee block

[thehomeengineer]

Hi All
This is a tale of a little discarded beat up Vee block.

Yet another skip-dive find.

A single vee block with no horse shoe clamp and a drilled hole in the block where someone had been very careless. I thought this is to good to leave in the skip so hooked it out knowing I could make good use of this little Vee block.

I decided to cut the Vee block up and make it in to different sized thin section blocks. 1/8", 1/4", 3/8" & 1/2"

The thinnest one was cut first and then the larger remaining piece placed in the mill and the cut face machined flat. This enabled me to ensure I had one face true to the Vee before cutting the next slice. The next block was cut and so on making sure I missed the part of the Vee with the horrible hole in it. Once all were cut I then machined the opposite cut face to size. Each block is 0.005” smaller than material stock size so when clamping in the vice the work piece is being held and not the Vee block.

These have been so useful in holding small components in the mill and used on the surface table for marking out.

So, the little discarded beat up Vee block has been given a new lease of life.

Cut down Vee blocks


Photo showing the vee blocks in side a machine vice.


Thank you for taking the time to view
The Home Engineer

[Paul Jones]

The Home Engineer,

Yo have a great story and useful V-block results.

How did you cut through the hardened exterior of the v-blocks?

Thank you for the ideas and guidance on being each block being at least 0.005” smaller in nominal thickness.

Regards,
Paul Jones

[thehomeengineer]

Hi Paul

As it had a drilled hole in it, I didnt consider the Vee block being hard. When cutting the block it was clear it was made of cast iron and not steel. Very good point though and something I would have had to consider if it wasn't for that hole.

I have just started another project I am working on which is harden steel. This is a Dickinson No.2 morse taper lathe tool post holder which I intend to machine to make the main body of a live spindle. To anneal the holder it was placed in the house wood burner for 24 hours and covered in embers and left to cool for 24 hours in the wood burner. I checked to make sure it was soft enough to machine with a file. The holder is know ready for machining to take bearings either end of the holder for the main shaft of the live spindle.

Thank you again for your interest and comments
The Home Engineer

[ncollar]

Home Engineer
Very nice project for the orphan block and now you have an addition to your box no one else has. Beautiful job.
I want some now.
Nelson

[DIYer]

Thanks thehomeengineer! We've added your Thin V Blocks to our Workholding category,
as well as to your builder page: thehomeengineer's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Thin V Blocks by thehomeengineer

tags: machining, V-block

[Metallurg33]

I need to find a better class of skips to look in! Nice job!

[NeiljohnUK]

[QUOTE=thehomeengineer;107979

So, the little discarded beat up Vee block has been given a new lease of life.

The Home Engineer[/QUOTE]

I recently bought 4 sets of small 40mm square Vee blocks, with 3 sets of tapped holes for the clamps to fit in, 2 sets are being wire eroded into 6 slices per set, these are for the construction of fixturing jigs for orbital welding stainless steel tube when using a Swagelok Micro weld head as it cannot hold tubes in alinement by itself reliably. I can foresee spare slices being repurposed!

[NeiljohnUK]

This is the jig, the silver item in the centre is the weld head clamping section.

[thehomeengineer]

The swagelok welder is a great bit of kit once set up correctly. I have made several gas panels that were used on very expensive gases so the amount of joints was limited. There are limitations but overall I was very impressed with the welder.

[NeiljohnUK]

The swagelok welder is a great bit of kit once set up correctly. I have made several gas panels that were used on very expensive gases so the amount of joints was limited. There are limitations but overall I was very impressed with the welder.

The Swagelok welder is good, not the very best but pretty close, as long as the operator follows their training. The M200 (we have 2) however can be damaged by poor welding ground connections (a long gone lazy weld operator not cam locking the head to the fixture blew ours twice) and one of our contract specialists has had to return his for major rework due to the main CPU board failing. He's copied my jig for the micro weld head as the bearing area and clamping force the head can deliver is insufficient except with very short lengths of tube/fittings, and often the job forces you to use a micro head as there's no space for the bigger type.

Most of the gas systems I work on are fully welded, the safety implications of what we handle excludes any other form of joint apart from locked VCR in extracted containment, with co-axial welded lines for the most hazardous.