parallels

[Susquatch]

Ordered the 1/4” wide set parallels (I already have a 1/8” set).

Damn you @RobinHood !

What did you have to go and find those for?

Just ordered a set of those too.

No 123 blocks though. I have enough. Bought two pairs at Accusize a few years ago that were from the same lot and were identical as close as I could measure them (but I marked them anyway), and then got a half dozen from a toolmaker's estate. Some have a little bit of rust, but as far as I can tell it's only superficial.

I have always wondered if I should try to clean them up at all or just oil them and leave them as is........ For now they are oiled. Advice appreciated.

I'd jump at a chance to get a good deal on 2-4-6 blocks. Might try to make some now that I have a surface grinder.

 

[Canadium]

I hope you already know I will help where I can. I'll send you a PM with my contact info.

I say this because I'm in an even worse situation than @Hruul . I not only already had the parallels I already have a mill. But the mill has just been sitting there in my shop inoperable for months because I haven't figured out yet how to power it from single phase. I will make a couple of more detailed posts soon once I'm able to gather together my thoughts on the subject.

 

[RobinHood]

have always wondered if I should try to clean them up at all or just oil them and leave them as is........ For now they are oiled. Advice appreciated.

Here is my take on corrosion (rust): as most know, corrosion has a tendency to be at the surface and the oxide layer is typically higher than the surrounding parent metal. This makes the tool not really usable because accuracy (flatness, parallelism, etc) is lost.

So I take the oxide layer off with your favourite rust remover. Now you have a small “crater” or pits. These are below the surrounding metal surface and the tool becomes usable again. Aesthetically it is not perfect, but it works perfectly as designed.

 

[Susquatch]

Here is my take on corrosion (rust): as most know, corrosion has a tendency to be at the surface and the oxide layer is typically higher than the surrounding parent metal. This makes the tool not really usable because accuracy (flatness, parallelism, etc) is lost.

So I take the oxide layer off with your favourite rust remover. Now you have a small “crater” or pits. These are below the surrounding metal surface and the tool becomes usable again. Aesthetically it is not perfect, but it works perfectly as designed.

This has been my favoured plan of attack. But it's good to read that advice from someone like you.

 

[RobinHood]

Thanks for the compliment @Susquatch. I’m really not that good. I read a lot and am not afraid to try stuff out and make mistakes…

 

[Susquatch]

Thanks for the compliment @Susquatch. I’m really not that good. I read a lot and am not afraid to try stuff out and make mistakes…

Ya ya ya..... Your voice is one of both knowledge and experience. They are not often found in the same place. A few others like that on here too. But I'm not turning my compliment to you into a list of others......

 

[Manfred]

Mine arrived today too. I started a stampede!

I'm still pondering whether I should rather get a metric set but those are a lot more expensive.

 

[RobinHood]

I'm still pondering whether I should rather get a metric set but those are a lot more expensive.

Would you be able to share with us what the advantage(s) of a metric set of parallels would be over a SAE one. Thanks.

 

[PaulL]

Would you be able to share with us what the advantage(s) of a metric set of parallels would be over a SAE one.

Beginner here, but already I'm frustrated when I want to take an offset from a known surface and my only measurement objects are in the wrong units. I can convert easily enough, but it's mucking around when I'd rather just be able to add or subtract nice round numbers.
I made a 10mm edge finder and realized how awful it is for imperial measures.
So then I made a 3/8th edge finder. Oh, that was exactly as bad.
Now I'm making a 3/8 shank edge finder with a 200 thou probe. The 400 thou probe I made of course fit none of my collets.
This is such silly stuff to learn the hard way.

 

[RobinHood]

Good points @PaulL . Sometimes round numbers make life easier.

I have a good scientific calculator close to where I am working. Also pencil and paper for quick sketches and notes are handy to have too.

Unit/measurement conversion is just the nature of the beast. It seems I have to do it all the time.

 

[PaulL]

Unit/measurement conversion is just the nature of the beast. It seems I have to do it all the time.

The fewer significant figures I need to carry around on my way to a precision result, the less I seem to screw up, even with paper and pencil ;-)

 

[ElectronWrangler]

A mentor would be great right now both from a shopping assistance perspective as well as from a getting it to work perspective.

I say this because I'm in an even worse situation than @Hruul . I not only already had the parallels I already have a mill. But the mill has just been sitting there in my shop inoperable for months because I haven't figured out yet how to power it from single phase. I will make a couple of more detailed posts soon once I'm able to gather together my thoughts on the subject.

You need some kind of phase conversion.
A bank of capacitors is not a good choice for the variable loads imposed on a mill. Would work OK on a fan.
The next choice is a rotary converter. Search with duckduckgo for 'rotary phase converter'. Not cheap - prices start at $400 new from Phoenix Phase Converters.
I hooked up one of these for an employer a *few* years ago. Worked fine.

 

[Manfred]

Would you be able to share with us what the advantage(s) of a metric set of parallels would be over a SAE one. Thanks.

Grew up in a metric world and find the metric system to be so much easier to work with. Most of my designs and pretty much all the imported stuff is metric. So if the parallels are 10mm (or 12 or 15) I just subtract that from whatever the dimension is that I am measuring on the machine and I have the size of the workpiece. A lot easier than converting 3/8" to metric or even subtracting 3/8 from 1 5/16" for example. Yes, there are calculators and pen and paper but I find I mix up things "in the heat of the moment".

Another advantage IMHO of metric is that it is a lot easier to work out the trigonometry of angles if the dimensions are all the same base, i.e.10. I find the fractional math to be a challenge - to put it mildly.

Not trying to convert anyone.

 

[PaulL]

Grew up in a metric world and find the metric system to be so much easier to work with. Most of my designs and pretty much all the imported stuff is metric. So if the parallels are 10mm (or 12 or 15) I just subtract that from whatever the dimension is that I am measuring on the machine and I have the size of the workpiece. A lot easier than converting 3/8" to metric or even subtracting 3/8 from 1 5/16" for example. Yes, there are calculators and pen and paper but I find I mix up things "in the heat of the moment".

Yeah. It's vexing that all my drawings and dials and calipers are in decimal inches, but drills, end mills and collets are in fractional inches. Error-prone much?
This is the stuff that crashes Mars landers.

 

[Janger]

It really does suck. I find collets are the hardest to get right as there are so many sizes all with weird fractional numbers. I’m now tempted to get out the diamond engraver and write the decimal size on them all. My drill indexes have the decimal equivalent stamped on and that helps.

I think the worst though is all the really weird sizes that are needed for imperial threads. Letter and number drills have to look up sizes in tables all the time and I don’t have the right size frequently. So now I’m trying to figure out what do I have and what’s the closest for this application…

The worlds production of tooling, material, tools, all costs more for us as the USA is the only market for the imperial sizes and we’re stuck with it too since they live next door. Just think 7 billion people on earth and 400 million (only 5%) of them demand to be different and can’t adopt a world wide standard. Well that’s a flame post for sure. Hopefully won’t ruffle too many feathers

 

[Janger]

You need some kind of phase conversion.
A bank of capacitors is not a good choice for the variable loads imposed on a mill. Would work OK on a fan.
The next choice is a rotary converter. Search with duckduckgo for 'rotary phase converter'. Not cheap - prices start at $400 new from Phoenix Phase Converters.
I hooked up one of these for an employer a *few* years ago. Worked fine.

OR buy a suitable single phase motor and swap that in instead.

 

[Susquatch]

It really does suck. I find collets are the hardest to get right as there are so many sizes all with weird fractional numbers. I’m now tempted to get out the diamond engraver and write the decimal size on them all. My drill indexes have the decimal equivalent stamped on and that helps.

I think the worst though is all the really weird sizes that are needed for imperial threads. Letter and number drills have to look up sizes in tables all the time and I don’t have the right size frequently. So now I’m trying to figure out what do I have and what’s the closest for this application…

The worlds production of tooling, material, tools, all costs more for us as the USA is the only market for the imperial sizes and we’re stuck with it too since they live next door. Just think 7 billion people on earth and 400 million (only 5%) of them demand to be different and can’t adopt a world wide standard. Well that’s a flame post for sure. Hopefully won’t ruffle too many feathers

Wanna hear a good one?

When Canada decided to go metric, almost everyone said no way unless the US goes too. Our stupid government actually believed that if Canada did it, the US would realize how good it was and covert to metric too.

Stupid people. The US for sticking to Imperial, and Canada believing the US would follow our lead.

I'm actually fine using both.

One of many nice features about my DRO is the it converts on the fly with the push of a button.

I also have a scientific calculator (an HP-12C RPN Clone) and a units converter on my phone.

The calculator is programmable just like the real one so regular conversions can be automated.

This is a screen shot.



There is also a simplified portrait mode.



For fractions, I have a big chart on the wall behind my drill press. I sometimes also use a fractional Caliper - slide it to what you want to convert, push the units button and voila.

 

[Chicken lights]

It really does suck. I find collets are the hardest to get right as there are so many sizes all with weird fractional numbers. I’m now tempted to get out the diamond engraver and write the decimal size on them all. My drill indexes have the decimal equivalent stamped on and that helps.

I think the worst though is all the really weird sizes that are needed for imperial threads. Letter and number drills have to look up sizes in tables all the time and I don’t have the right size frequently. So now I’m trying to figure out what do I have and what’s the closest for this application…

The worlds production of tooling, material, tools, all costs more for us as the USA is the only market for the imperial sizes and we’re stuck with it too since they live next door. Just think 7 billion people on earth and 400 million (only 5%) of them demand to be different and can’t adopt a world wide standard. Well that’s a flame post for sure. Hopefully won’t ruffle too many feathers

I agree, the metric system is clunky and outdated, the world needs to learn imperial finally

Flame away

 

[jcdammeyer]

I'm actually fine using both.

One of many nice features about my DRO is the it converts on the fly with the push of a button.

I also have a scientific calculator (an HP-12C RPN Clone) and a units converter on my phone.

The calculator is programmable just like the real one so regular conversions can be automated.

Yahoo. Another HP Calculator fan.

 

[RobinHood]

I grew up in the Metric system myself. I do agree that there are more people in the world using it than the SAE system. Converting between the two does introduce a source of error which requires additional attention to detail.

Maybe it is because I am so used to converting from one unit of measurement to the other at my job, this becomes a non-issue. I don’t even think about it other than recognizing which units I am currently in and to which units I need to go.