123 Blocks - I'm underwhelmed, or ignorant

[dbb-the-bruce]

I purchased a "starter" kit with my mill that included the usual step wedges with clamp arms bolts, tee nuts etc.
It also included a set of 123 blocks.

The blocks look like they could be incredibly useful, it also seems that they are considered part of a basic kit. However, every time I've thought "hey I can use the 123 blocks" I've end up giving up. My set has 5 tapped holes laid out like the 5 on a pair of dice, and only on the flat sides. The cap screws / bolts don't clear the untapped holes, so you need smaller bolts, nuts etc to bolt the blocks together.

I did a little google-ing and found people use them like big fat parallels or squares.

How do you use them? what am I missing?
Any pointers / links to good examples? or just more info on creative work holding in general?

-Dave B

 

[benmychree]

I personally only use them for parallels and measuring; I have a pair that I made in my apprenticeship without tapped holes (only drilled for lightness) and another set that adopted me, with tapped holes, but have never used them that way. To use them for measuring, I use them in conjunction with a pair of step gages that I made that imitate a set that was made at Mare Island Navy Yard by a toolmaker apprentice, they have steps from 1/8" to 1" by 1/16ths.

 

[pontiac428]

I did a little google-ing and found people use them like big fat parallels or squares.

This. You can use them for all sorts of layouts, but at the end of the day, they are big fat parallels/riser blocks with good, square corners. If you are building a setup for repetitive work, you can use them as locator stops on your table. Just another arrow in your quiver.

 

[JimDawson]

Your post got me to thinking a bit and I had to check mine. I have 2 sets of 123 blocks, one Brown & Sharpe, the other a cheap Chinese set. The non-tapped holes in the B&S set are 0.376, in the Chinese set are 0.357. The threaded holes in both are 3/8-16.

Obviously the Chinese set is not made correctly, and the B&S set will bolt together as they should. Another example of cheap import tooling following the form but not the function.

 

[benmychree]

Your post got me to thinking a bit and I had to check mine. I have 2 sets of 123 blocks, one Brown & Sharpe, the other a cheap Chinese set. The non-tapped holes in the B&S set are 0.376, in the Chinese set are 0.357. The threaded holes in both are 3/8-16.

Obviously the Chinese set is not made correctly, and the B&S set will bolt together as they should. Another example of cheap import tooling following the form but not the function.

Perhaps why they are giving them away?

 

[WesPete66]

I don't own any myself as l have no mill, but it seems to me this is a recurring question. It sounds like they, as are many of the imported tools/goods, are "some assembly required".

 

[T Bredehoft]

I made a set of 1-2-3 blocks from 1 x 2 A1 tool steel back in the early 1970s. Holes are for weight reduction, hardened and ground all three to the same dimensions, not even inches. I've used them ever since, never needed to screw them together, never wished they were.

 

[KMoffett]

Your post got me to thinking a bit and I had to check mine. I have 2 sets of 123 blocks, one Brown & Sharpe, the other a cheap Chinese set. The non-tapped holes in the B&S set are 0.376, in the Chinese set are 0.357. The threaded holes in both are 3/8-16.

Obviously the Chinese set is not made correctly, and the B&S set will bolt together as they should. Another example of cheap import tooling following the form but not the function.

0.357" =9.0678mm Probably trying to force us to switch to metric.

 

[darkzero]

A common complaint with the China ones. Search online & you will see many discussions about this. Whoever copied them first made them wrong and they all followed. Pretty much all the ones from China (that I have seen) are made "wrong". Need to get some USA made ones if you want to bolt them together as intended or make your own.

 

[Tinkertoy1941]

As a kid I played with Erector Sets, Building Blocks what ever we could find. Today I am doing the same thing with the vertical mills, horizontal mill, surface grinders, drill press, arbor press and all the FURNITURE that I use.
123 Blocks, parallels, round precision pins, angle blocks, planer gauges, jack screws and the list goes on.
123 blocks can be bolted together to make small angle plate, clamped in a vise for locators, clamped to an angle plate for repetitive angle set setups.
The use of my FURNITURE is only limited by my imagination and being able to just make it work for me and to produce QUALITY work.!