2 J Collet Block

machinistmarty

machinistmarty

Manual Machinist
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Feb 18, 2015
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image.jpg 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
 
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!
 
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
 
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...........
 
What sizes of 2Js do you lack in your set? There are some that show up around here from time to time....
 
I have a full set of round sizes with a few duplicates no hex or square however
 
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.
 
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.......
 
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!
Click to expand...
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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