Gauge blocks

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Mr Ron
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Gauge blocks

Post by Mr Ron »

I am looking to buy a set of rectangular gauge blocks. They cost anywhere from just over a hundred bucks for an 81 piece set to well over several thousands of dollars. One set I am looking at is an 81 piece "economy" set from Shars Tool Co. It has an NIST certificate and a tolerance of 0.000050". Being a hobbyist, I don't need the expensive set; this one costs $117.50. Is the set I'm, referring to any good or is it just a piece of Chinese junk? I'm assuming the material is steel and subject to rusting unlike the expensive ones that are made of a non-corroding ceramic material. Steel blocks would have to kept oiled when not in use and wiped clean before each use; am I correct in my reasoning?
Mr.Ron from South Mississippi
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Bill Shields
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by Bill Shields »

Your reasoning is correct. You will need to keep these things clean and oiled ..just like industry did long before ceramic blocks were available

Tracible to NIST in this case means nothing.

As a hobbiest...spend what you are comfortable with spending.

Purchase from a country that you are comfortable supporting.

If I were not in a hurry, I would look for a used set made in USA...however there are no guarantees regarding what you will get.
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
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Harold_V
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by Harold_V »

Bill Shields wrote: Sun Feb 06, 2022 2:45 pm .however there are no guarantees regarding what you will get.
Hmmm. I suspect that's true for those made in China, as well.

I am not bashing China. Just expounding on experiences I've had. Some good----some not.

H
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LIALLEGHENY
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by LIALLEGHENY »

Go ahead, you can bash China......they are directly responsible for a lot of the junk out on the market. I was given 3 sets of Chinese made pin gages, every single one of them were rejected by being out of spec, hence I use them to check hole sizes that have no tolerances.......or throw them at the occasional squirrel that gets in my shop.

Nyle
JBTR
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by JBTR »

Another possibility, also from China: Amazon has "Accusize Industrial Tools 81 Pcs Steel Gauge Block Set, Grade B, P900-S581" for about the same price. I was just looking at these last night. The reviews are not too bad compared to Amazon's Chinese import tools in general. As I see it, an advantage is that it's easy to return it if you're not satisfied. (And don't be shy about returning something to Amazon: sometimes they don't even pack properly and a delicate item arrives beat up from shipping.)
TimTheGrim
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by TimTheGrim »

I have an 81 piece B-grade set I bought from CDCO about 8 years ago. I keep a dryer button from my last statins bottle in the case to help protect them. The set has served me well doing sine bar and height gage stuff in my home shop. There are a few blocks in the set that don’t wring as well as the others but I’m not splitting tenths in I die shop anymore and am glad I have them.

Anything I have bought from Discount/Shars in the last two years has been very satisfactory.
Illigitimi non Carborundum
'96 Birmingham mill, Enco 13x40 GH and Craftsman 6x18 lathes, Reid 2C surface grinder. Duro Bandsaw and lots of tooling from 30+ years in the machining trades and 15+ years in refinery units. Now retired
pete
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by pete »

I'm not China bashing either. I'm being logical and using my own but still limited one single past experience with off shore gauge blocks. Just as Bill said, NIST traceable and at those prices is about guaranteed for sure meaningless. Lets face it, just how many buying those cheaper sets have the reference and measuring equipment to either personally verify or will spend the money to have them re-certified by an outside source that does have the temperature controlled lab and accurate enough high end equipment to do so even down to that 50 millionths never mind finer than that? From my reading and it might well be incorrect, having an 81 pc set of gauge blocks certified costs approximately about half of what a good brand name set of blocks cost. So if you've got that to spend, you'd buy better to start with. And imo, for really hard to verify for accuracy metrology equipment, it pretty much entices any less than honest company's into stating almost anything they want because who's going to actually check? But I chose not to buy the cheapest possible set when I bought my first one's, they were still no name off shore and also came with a hand signed real fancy and all NIST traceable certificate of accuracy with a serial number that showed each blocks deviation down to + - millionths as per the then grade 2 standards. I paid roughly $600 for my imperial set through Penn Tools. Unwrapped & cleaned them all off with a solvent bath for each one. The only issue was two of the blocks were laser marked and measured exactly the same as close as my digital mike could measure. Even more odd, the serial number on each was the same. Now I don't have a clue about exactly how it's really done at any off shore gauge block manufacturer's. But one would assume a serial numbered and "NIST certified" set of blocks would be kept together, lubed & wrapped in the protective paper, and they and that fancy certification would all be dropped into the box that they belong in. Penn were as usual excellent and replaced that one with a real Mitutoyo grade 2 block of the correct size in less than 10 days.

Not that you even want to spend that much, but fwiw. I still had no real hands on experience with any other brand of better gauge blocks, and mine were already highly suspect for just how trustworthy they were. More by luck than anything else, I ran across an Ebay seller who specialized in higher end metrology equipment both new and very lightly used. Everything used he had was at least in 90% or better condition. No worn out or seriously used garbage at all. About $1200 later I had a NOS 81 pc Mitutoyo grade 2 set still fully factory sealed. At the time that was about half of what the Canadian KBC bandits up here wanted. There's also a very noticeable difference in both surface finish and there ease of wringing together between both those sets. The few I have checked out of curiosity I can't measure any deviation and there just as I as expected, and as they should be. Hell even the preservative oil Mit. uses and that there's zero doubt by me it was chosen on purpose smells French perfume lovely and expensive. :-) So the first set are now my shop blocks where I'll use them under less than ideal conditions, and the good one's are saved for work that really does justify there use. Calibrating almost everything else for one example. But even a cheap but measured set can work to preset any fairly inaccurate height gauge and DTI combination to a whole lot better than the average + - .001" they generally have. The first set in either a single block or a stack does get used, but only after I mike them to verify there within at least what my mikes can measure to. Yeah I should just measure them all, but I get the odd random 10th or half 10th show up sometimes that could easily be measuring error, or not. I could verify pretty close to there size against my Mit blocks and a 20 millionths indicator I've got. For what and how I'm now using that set, it would be mostly over kill imo.

Unless your making parts for money and they have to meet some pretty specific and traceable measurements, probably almost any gauge block set would work ok or well enough in a home shop. Even a close but not exact set allows you to double check all your measuring equipment and that it all does measure real close to being the same. But the less I paid, the more likely I'd be to still physically measure every block with the best mikes I had just to be generally sure there were no gross errors. And yes if your in a higher humidity location with large swings in shop temperature? Then yeah they need to be kept lubed and wiped off spotlessly before each use. Pure lanolin works well with maybe tightly wrapped thin paper to keep that lube contained somewhat like the good blocks come with would be how I'd go. Any rust including just light surface rust makes them about useless. Fortunately I live in a drier climate and my shop is temperature controlled any time it's below about 65 degrees. A desiccant package in the box is all I've ever needed. Ymmv. Glad bags aren't totally and 100% moisture proof over enough time, but I still keep my good blocks in one of their resealable freezer sized bags as well. My logic is that any moisture or dew point level changes are at least slowed way down. For now that seems to have worked ok for me.

A big use with home shops is that sine bar setting already pointed out. Yeah it's one use, with surface grinding or checking machine tool tapers I'd probably use my best blocks. For milling, I went a lot of years just using a mike and a set of Starrett adjustable parallels. They of course can't do low angles like the blocks can. But for most milling, there I think almost or probably about good enough if your careful with pre-setting the parallels. Off shore parallels? I dunno about that unless I verified they are in fact parallel first.
Technical Ted
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by Technical Ted »

I bought this Shars set from there eBay site. Works fine for my use and the price was right.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/330716213394

Ted
toolroom
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by toolroom »

I too have an "offshore set that has served me extremely well over the past years. I agree with the above statement from Tim "the grim,'" unless you are doing work for NASA, or Boeing, a well kept set should last you for years. I am retired Dimensional Metrologist, and calibrated many cheap Chinese micrometers for incoming individuals, and have come to the conclusion, that. " A tool is only as good, as how well you care of it.
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Bill Shields
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by Bill Shields »

I just (personally) prefer to (in any way possible) support manufacturing of anything in CONUS.

Sometimes this includes folks reselling old locally made equipment.

everyone is worried about computer chips -> which can be a problem -> however -> ever tried to purchase a AAA battery made in USA ?
Too many things going on to bother listing them.
Mr Ron
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by Mr Ron »

I just received my Shars gauge block set. It was well packed in a very nice wood box. I haven't used it yet, but it looks like it will do the job for a very amateur machinist.

Oh BTW, what is the oil to use on the blocks?
Mr.Ron from South Mississippi
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mklotz
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Re: Gauge blocks

Post by mklotz »

Bill Shields wrote: Sat Feb 12, 2022 1:37 pm I just (personally) prefer to (in any way possible) support manufacturing of anything in CONUS.

... ever tried to purchase a AAA battery made in USA ?
These...

https://www.amazon.com/Energizer-Max-Al ... 883a3&th=1

claim to be "Manufactured in United States".
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