# 2 J Collet Block



## machinistmarty (Apr 13, 2015)

After searching for 2 j collet blocks I finally made my own. Made a hex and a square. Then one day I had to cut a fairly accurate bevel. Drilled and reamed for 1/4 dowels on a 2 inch spacing. (I wanted 2 1/2 but not enough room) This was a 30 degree angle,I use the fixed jaw but did this so it was easier to photograph


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## machinistmarty (Apr 13, 2015)

I forgot to say (but feel sure most of you picked up on) The dowels serve as a sine bar.


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## Cactus Farmer (Apr 14, 2015)

When I irst got my lathe tooled up with an AXA block I wanted a 5-C collet holder for it. Welllit was way too pricey for a toy so I build one along with about 30 regular blocks. (I shared with the guy who's mill I did this work on). I made a 3 Morse taper block too. The 5-C is the one most used. I have 5-C hex and square blocks too and will put pin holes in them for sine-bar usage. Nice trick!


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## machinistmarty (Apr 14, 2015)

Thanks Cactus,  2j collets are hard to find anymore, but thats what I had to work with.  Just wanted a simple way to index in the mill.  So I made the hex one and the square one. The Reamed holes fit the pins very well. It makes a pretty good makeshift sine bar. Its not perfect by any means but It works suprizingly well. I really didnt see a need to put pins in the hex, I didnt feel it would clamp very well


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## Cactus Farmer (Apr 14, 2015)

The hex would clamp well enough to make a tapered allen wrench I'd bet. There are tapered allen wrench looking things plumbers use for some old style valve seats.........they are a GOD send if it's washed out very badly. I like the sine-bar idea. I must measure my square holder to see my center to center possibilities...I mostly have 5-Cs and a few oddballs from a collet setup for an unknown lather that I adapted to my old Rockwell. Then I got to making some $$$ with the tools so I invested some of it in a 5-C  collet chuck. Best deal I ever did. I was anal about fitting the chuck to the threaded backplate and have almost nil runout. I just got a camlock D-1-5 machine(gear head Acru-turn) and bought another collet chuck for it. They are just too handy for smaller parts,ie ,gun screws,pins, and such. I'm a gunsmith and make all sorts of odd ball screws to fix old abused guns. Oft times a wallowed out threaded hole will just be made into the next bigger size and then build an appropreate new screw. I'm getting famous around here for fixing the "unfixable".  I just made the parts that I need if I can see what it did. I may not look exactly like a factory part but as long as it functions the same ,who cares...........


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## Cactus Farmer (Apr 14, 2015)

What sizes of 2Js do you lack in your set? There are some that show up around here from time to time....


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## machinistmarty (Apr 14, 2015)

I have a full set of round sizes with a few duplicates  no hex or square however


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## machinistmarty (Apr 14, 2015)

I just made my collet blocks out of material I had.  They arent precision ground but they do a fantastic job of rough indexing. I can always use the dividing head if need be. I wanted 2 1/2 spacing so i could use a 5 inch sine bar chart, just didnt have the room, had to settle for 2 ".  I thought about making 15, 30, 45 and 60 spacers and then just using feeler guages to get different angles. Need to get a set of jo blocks.


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## Cactus Farmer (Apr 14, 2015)

I don't think I've ever seen square or hex 2js. but I'll keep a lookout. You just can'r tell what will pop up.
I bought a 7" Logan shaper from a used tool guy once. It looked Ok but turning it by hand it sounded like it was lubed with river gravel. I got it home and took it apart. It had about 5 ponds of mud dauber nests in it. A serious cleaning and it was like new, he chain showed no wear at all. Just as I got it up and running,an old friend called and asked me to come over. I knew hw had this South Bend 7" shapper but he wanted a gob of money for it and I just forgot about it.
Well, he GAVE it to me! Now,no one really needs two 7" shapers but I have them and keep one vise at 0 degrees and the other at 90. Works for me! The South Bend is more accurate and will make a prettier finish but the Logan is a beast. Big old cuts all day long when roughing out a piece.  I use the SB to cut screw slots in the gunscrews I make.
I can grind a piece of Rex ,with my T&C grinder, to an exact fit on the remaining screw slots so they all match. I would have to buy many $$$ worth of slitting saws to be able to to the same thing with a mill. As for the 2" spacing,it's just a little math to find the spacer block to do any angle. I took trig in the mini semester in college. I had it in High school so it was just a refresher. 9 days straight and the final. Made 100% on it........instructor was amazed. There was a tricky question that no one ever gets it seems,but I did and then told him how to do it better than his method. Now this is a guy with a Doctorate in math! I got a little big head for about an hour or so.......


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## Chip_per (Apr 14, 2015)

Cactus Farmer said:


> When I irst got my lathe tooled up with an AXA block I wanted a 5-C collet holder for it. Welllit was way too pricey for a toy so I build one along with about 30 regular blocks. (I shared with the guy who's mill I did this work on). I made a 3 Morse taper block too. The 5-C is the one most used. I have 5-C hex and square blocks too and will put pin holes in them for sine-bar usage. Nice trick!


can you post a picture of that block with the 5-c collet holder, I'd like to make one. Thats a good idea!


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## machinistmarty (Apr 14, 2015)

We used to have a 20" cincinnati  shaper at work.  It was like new.  What a pleasure to run. I was a sad sad boy when they got rid of it. I like the horizontal boring mill, but there was nothing like running that old shaper!!!


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