Are Stevenson's ER Blocks Useful

Or you could buy an old flat iron (50p at a Car Boot) Neil and machine it so that it holds the ER block at your lathes centre height... my EW in this case...

Still a work in progress but you will get the general idea. It really started out as just a practice piece (for the shaper) and it was a bit 'porous' in places - but it occurred to me that this would be a useful application for it. Still needs a swing away clamp, holes for the EW boring table T-slots and a bit at the back so both the block and the work can be set repeatably.

Regards,

IanT

Edited By IanT on 25/10/2017 19:10:50

Yes, here is the story behind it. John was a great practical ideas person. On one of my regular visits to Johns place we would discuss ideas over lunch at the local chippy. He would come up with a new idea, sketch it up and we would explore the possibility of getting the product made, keeping in mind that such a product would need to be made under a certain cost, with certain projected sales targets. I would take the sketch, go back home, and explore the viability, going back and forth, until we were both happy. He would then make the prototype. Then pass it to our Alan or the factory which ARC appointed, to come up with final production drawings, which he and I would check, make changes as necessary and approve. ARC would then review making costs based on MOQs and sales potential and discuss with John. If we both feel the project may be viable, ARC takes the gamble and puts into production.

The key guiding figure for the idea and development was John. There are many people he came across in life who could tell you similar stories. Many of his ideas went into production with some of the other people in a similar way, but there was no mention of John in the development of such ideas. He never wanted money for this in the form of licence or royalty. He was paid as a consultant/sub-contractor for his time and prototype. Of coarse over time ARCs relationship with John became very close, and there were many favours done both ways. When ARC launched the first product he had developed/worked on, he was pleasantly surprised that we named it 'Stevensons'. From our point of view, we wanted to give him recognition. The marketing publicity followed naturally as an additional benefit.

The same trend of 'Stevensons' followed there after with every product ARC developed with him.

Rest assured, for each successful project we worked with John over the years, there were countless other projects which we worked on together which failed to see the light of day, for some technical or financial cost reason. There are one or two project he was working on with us before he died which might yet progress into production in the coming years may be, but it is difficult to say if and when.

Ketan at ARC

Ketan,

Were there any non-viable commercial projects which might be viable home projects?

If there were, subject to the approval of John's family of course, perhaps they might make good articles for the magazine, subject to finding a willing engineer to execute, photograph and document a "Stevenson's Project"

- Nick

I've been meaning to get a couple of these for a while and this thread reminded me, so I just ordered a couple from Arc. which lead to other stuff getting added to the cart......

The Stevenson self cleaning tea mug was not that viable

Sorry for the late response Nick. At present I can't think of anything, but if something comes to mind, I will refer it to Neil.

Thanks, Ketan.

Yabbut, when will someone make and sell square and hex ER collets? That's another advantage 5C has.

I have a pretty much complete set of 3C, some square, most round, no hex, the Stent T&CG has a 3C tool holder, the Boxford takes 3C and my mill uses homemade TG 3C hex and square collet holders. Only thing wrong with 3C is the 1/2" capacity...

Sorry, back to the OP's question - yes, very useful. Nothing quicker for putting a hex on some round. Before I made these, my only option was the RT, which, by the time it was on the mill table, bolted down, chuck fitted, etc, was painfully slow in comparison.

Edited By thaiguzzi on 28/10/2017 11:14:09

I only just found this thread (looking for octagonal blocks, as it happens).

As this seems to be a compilation thread, here is a link to another way to use the blocks

https://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=131421

Not for work-holding at all, but to use a coaxial indicator as an edge-finder.

Edited By Andy Pugh on 04/12/2018 15:17:44

ROFL!

I think the basic theory was that any dirt would be carefully coated over with a layer of tannin

Andy, if you want something that goes beyond the square and hex blocks consider the Stevenson's 5C indexing head with ER32 adaptor and nut as sold by Ketan.

Martin C

Yes, I’ve found my spindexer very handy at times.

MSC/J&L have had similar blocks in their catalogue for a while. How original is the idea? I think one of Tubal Cain's videos also shows similar blocks for 5C collets. I even made some for myself ten years go to take morse taper collets for the purpose of resharpening milling cutters.

.

I suppose the 'originality' came with adapting a very old idea to an ER version.

MichaelG.

.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 04/12/2018 19:05:50

5C blocks have been around for along time and is likely what inspired JS to come up with the ER ones. As Far as I can remember ARC had them before MSC, though a quick glance at the MSC catalogue only shows 5C

JS also came up with the idea of the custom nut and adaptor to fit the JS indexer, though the same indexer without that feature has been around for quite a while.

Edited By JasonB on 04/12/2018 19:06:07

If I want to accurately index I have this:

https://bodgesoc.blogspot.com/2017/05/harmonic.html

And a D1-4 5C collet chuck. (Or I could hold the ER32 block in a 3-jaw or 4-jaw chuck)

Edited By Andy Pugh on 04/12/2018 19:22:03

Harold Hall described collets for square material that would fit inside a standard ER (or probably any other) collet.
I had several Burnerd multisize square collets and I never ever used them!

Dave
The Emerald Isle

I've always found a close fitting split sleeve over square or hexagonal stock works well.

ER Collet blocks are very useful. Had just finished making (bodging) mine (ER25 and ER32) when Arc started selling J S's version.them. They are far better product than mine.

Like others, just wish that ER collets for square or hexagon were available.

Howard

I wonder whether the collets would still work if you were to wire spark-erode a square hole into one?