Metric Fixation

[ptjw7uk]

I think my brain has been metricated!
Got job to do on some 25mm square stock, could do it in the 4 jaw but always hankered for a keats fixture. So purchased one from a UK store.
Fitted the stock ok but with only 2 threads biting on the bolts thought I should get some longer bolts.
Drag out the thread gauges and mic, strange size 9.3 mm dia and 1.6mm pitch.
So tried online searches, nothing obvious showing up nearest was a 9mm 1.5, a bit on the small side. Had a look in the shop and found a bolt that fitted, then the penny dropped!!
Its not metric at all just good old 3/8 whit.
Looked for some longer bolts and found some studding, cut to length, jobs a good un!
So I really must stop thinking that everything new must be metric.

Peter

[MrFluffy]

You've just got to remember that keats block may well have been designed or built by one of the older less metric friendly businesses
I prefer metric, but I still have a set of imperial collets and spanners and allen keys etc, since it keeps popping up in the uk as a throwback legacy.

Now off to source some 50.8mm bore grinding wheels for my surface grinder, at least thats metric and not in some imperial units

[John Stevenson]

Those Keats plates if I think are the same as what I'm thinking of are made in India, home of the Raj and firmly ensconced in the old Imperial threads of the Empire [ bugle call and roll down the flag]

It was a well known saying that the sun never set on the British Empire which was meant to say that the empire was so widespread it was always daylight somewhere.
When in truth it was because God would not trust an Englishman in the dark.

[ptjw7uk]

Your probable right John, made in India but I just couldn't have bought the material for the cost of the Keats.
Luckily I still have all the whit taps and dies to hand, you never know!!!
Mind you even 0ba is metric!
Peter

[J Tiers]

You've just got to remember that keats block may well have been designed or built by one of the older less metric friendly businesses

Nonsense.....

EVERYONE in the UK is 100% only metric!

At least that is what we are told when the subject of metric comes up................................................

[wierdscience]

I've decided to start manufacturing an export product in all metric dimensions and threads.
I think I'll use 8x1.5 10x1.75 and 12x2.0 threads that way it will be all metric and people will be happy.

[Jaakko Fagerlund]

I've decided to start manufacturing an export product in all metric dimensions and threads.
I think I'll use 8x1.5 10x1.75 and 12x2.0 threads that way it will be all metric and people will be happy.

Thinking of OEM lockout?

[Forrest Addy]

I never tire of repeating at every opportunity: The metric system is designed for people who can't divide by two.

[rohart]

Forest - if we'd developed with six finders on each hand, the world would have been a better place, I agree. Twelve is a much better choice of number system than ten. But, the idiots that invented counting used their fingers, and so we're stuck with base ten.

Given that, the metric system fits in with our counting system very well. And if you want to go up in factors of 2, you just have to adjust, and go up by 2, 2.5 and then 2 again, and repeat. Aesthetically, you can use the odd set to your advantage, and if one thing is 16 times the size of another thing, nobody can tell it's a power of two anyway.

All that's needed is a name for the length that is a tenth of a millimetre - 4 thou - and for architects to start using metres instead of millimetres. I really can't envisage a room that measures 7520 x 8740 - I'd much rather be told it's 7.5 by 8.7 metres.

I suppose it comes down to the old rivalry between Britain and France. We won the meridian battle, so they got sore and sold metric all over Europe. If you lot across the pond had developed your technology a little earlier, instead of running around fighting each other, metric might not have got the foothold it wanted.

[lazlo]

Your probable right John, made in India but I just couldn't have bought the material for the cost of the Keats.

The Keats block is a neat idea, but you could make one with a weldment in less than an hour, depending on how anal you were with the finish.

[Stern]

OK, please dont shoot me, but can someone tell me what a Keats block is ? I did try to google it and got this

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=5344,3354174

which after looking over for about 20 min realized I wasnt going to find what I was looking for lol

[lazlo]

[Forrest Addy]

Richard: I was poking fun at the Metri-dweebs. One of my Metri-phile friends describe the Imperial System of weights and measures as the "Imbecile system". Competing ideas evolve into tolerance and better understanding with a little humor.

[rohart]

I didn't take your post as a full frontal attack - but it inspired some thoughts, and there you go.

One the subject of the Keats fixture, I googled and came up with a page of Ron Chernich's where he goes into several ways of holding work eccentric to the spindle axis.

I found it entertaining.

http://modelenginenews.org/techniques/crankshafts.html

I prefer large angle plates, with lots of bolts and screws. And some balance weights too.

[The Artful Bodger]

That is not really a Keats block and has only half the functionality of the genuine ones which can be used, for example, to hold round stock horizontally on a machine table. The makers are Exe Engineering of Exeter http://www.exeengineering.co.uk/home.cfm they do not mention the Keats block on their site but the one I have clearly carries their name.

You can see mine behind the chuck..


keats block by xxxxxx, on Flickr