Metal Credit Card

[Jared P]

Got the 0.8mm aluminum cards in the mail from Amazon today, and while they work just fine, I'd be looking for something a little more heavy duty. Excited to see what the 1mm stainless steel and 1.25mm titanium cards are like.

But it got me thinking, maybe a 54mm setting block, similar to @matek's might just be the best option. I use a 38mm GHP block, and a CPW 20mm block for those respective set widths, only makes sense to have a 54mm block as well. Something like 54mm x 10mm x 86mm with a hollow center would be perfect - basically a credit card turned into a setting block with a hollow center. Or even, the ultimate setting block, 54mm x 38mm x 20mm. Maybe @Cannon or someone could make one of these in the future.
 

Edited February 24 by Jared P

[A.J. Valcarcel]

On 2/16/2024 at 1:51 PM, dubyagrip said:

@A.J. Valcarcel sent me a message that he made some out of walnut, and he would be sending me one as a gift.  I'll post photos here when it arrives.

It turned out to be Sapele, not Walnut. The piece was in the wrong cutoff bin, but it has a much better color than the walnut I have.

[C8Myotome]

I found a site where you can get custom cut metal blocks/cards if you don't mind spending like 30 dollars before shipping, depending on what you order. There are also aluminum rectangular hollow tubes like GHP block on this site https://www.cut2sizemetals.com/stainless-steel/plate/spl/?fbclid=IwAR1pbRM2DLFHNawTs0QGDRwa53TF0FufuRMBxbrLd4PISMH-Mn-mGtIk8-Q

Additionally I was looking through McMaster Carr, they sell rectangular hollow tubing like the GHP blocks, although pretty much for any of them you would need to cut them down to size, and the sizes aren't as customizable for example I was looking at 45 mm and there was just a 45x45 hollow rectangular tubing, I don't want a 4.5 cm square set block. But otherwise stuff like that is really all the GHP block is, with a logo on it. There are a million different parts on their website to look through https://www.mcmaster.com/products/aluminum/aluminum~/multipurpose-6061-aluminum-rectangular-tubes/shape~rectangular-tube/outside-width~1-750/outside-width~1-3-4/wall-thickness~1-8-1/wall-thickness~0-125/outside-height~1-3-4/?fbclid=IwAR3V2LSMOGIbHwtGTQJzbVkdG16gnNdttpTH6HH22gvjxyqwdl78wRYJcB0

Edited February 22 by C8Myotome

[Jared P]

Received all of the metal cards in the mail.

Pictured left to right:

- IronMind Captains of Crush card, measured 53.96mm wide
- 0.8mm thick aluminum card, measured 53.89mm wide
- 1.0mm thick stainless steel card, measured 53.89mm wide
- 1.25mm thick titanium card, measured 53.97mm wide

So the clear winner for me is the titanium card, which is both the heaviest and most accurate to the IronMind card in measurement. The aluminum and stainless cards measured a tad narrow. But the stainless steel cards are still very nice and durable. I wouldn't get the aluminum cards, they are too light and too thin.

The titanium card can be purchased from Umburry out of New Jersey for $7.50, here. It took 6 days to arrive in the mail from ordering.

Otherwise, getting a custom made hollow setting block measuring something like 54mm x 10 or 20mm x 86mm might be cool.

[Jared P]

[matek]

6 hours ago, Jared P said:

So the clear winner for me is the titanium card, which is both the heaviest and most accurate to the IronMind card in measurement.

Yeah that's the coolest for sure. 

6 hours ago, Jared P said:

Otherwise, getting a custom made hollow setting block measuring something like 54mm x 10 or 20mm x 86mm might be cool.

Since 20 (parallel) x30 (other cert/comp block size) x38 (ghp block) doesn't violate the rule of triangle inequality;

one can make a a triangular prism with a height of 54mm (cc) to have a block to rule them all haha 

Edited February 24 by matek

[Cannon]

6 hours ago, matek said:

Since 20 (parallel) x30 (other cert/comp block size) x38 (ghp block) doesn't violate the rule of triangle inequality; one can make a a triangular prism with a height of 54mm (cc) to have a block to rule them all haha 

Do people want this? I could easily have this made. Our shop makes stuff like this all day every day. Heat sinks, A/C plugs, etc. 

I think it should have "thickness" at the edges which are included in the dimensions. Like maybe as much as 5 mm thick instead of coming to a point. I think the math would still work out. 

Names? 

Tri-Tater
Triple Gripple
Mesurer à trois
Trimangle
Tri-flex
Block-Aid (could steal this name after our prior product didn't work out)
Thor: Ragnablock
 
Could also have names related to 4 instead of the triangle shape since it would be 4 blocks in one:

Quatrain 
For the Love of Quad

Or it could be The Prism! 
 

 

[C8Myotome]

41 minutes ago, Cannon said:

Do people want this? I could easily have this made. Our shop makes stuff like this all day every day. Heat sinks, A/C plugs, etc. 

I think it should have "thickness" at the edges which are included in the dimensions. Like maybe as much as 5 mm thick instead of coming to a point. I think the math would still work out. 

Names? 

Tri-Tater
Triple Gripple
Mesurer à trois
Trimangle
Tri-flex
Block-Aid (could steal this name after our prior product didn't work out)
Thor: Ragnablock
 
Could also have names related to 4 instead of the triangle shape since it would be 4 blocks in one:

Quatrain 
For the Love of Quad

Or it could be The Prism! 
 

 

I wouldn't mind a 45 mm metal block as a transition point between GHP and CCS distance

[Hannes]

I wish I could justify buying a titanium card. But $45 for shipping for a $7.50 item

[Jared P]

2 hours ago, Cannon said:

Do people want this? I could easily have this made.

I think the all-in-one Prism style would be good, or even just a separate 54mm block as well.

I personally use 20mm, 38mm, and 54mm sets every week in my training. They are basically equidistant apart, and cover the main ranges of motion for closing strength and certification preparation - Mash Monster, GHP, and CoC. Even though GHP is no longer happening (perhaps a future gripper and cert will replace GHP in the 38mm category), 38mm is basically the perfect halfway point between a parallel set and a credit card set (37mm is more accurate I suppose, but 38mm should be kept for tradition in my opinion).

That's why the setting blocks matter to me, because I use them in all of my working sets, to track progress, and to prepare for certs.

[Cannon]

1 hour ago, Hannes said:

I wish I could justify buying a titanium card. But $45 for shipping for a $7.50 item

I checked with those guys about getting them in bulk. Maybe something will work out but even if I got 100-200 of them the discount was very slight. 

[liftyzig]

i got the umberry titanium card too, i ordered a few and shipping was reasonable.  made a quick demonstration video.

 

 

[Glitch]

4 hours ago, Cannon said:

Do people want this? I could easily have this made. Our shop makes stuff like this all day every day. Heat sinks, A/C plugs, etc. 

I think it should have "thickness" at the edges which are included in the dimensions. Like maybe as much as 5 mm thick instead of coming to a point. I think the math would still work out. 

Names? 

Tri-Tater
Triple Gripple
Mesurer à trois
Trimangle
Tri-flex
Block-Aid (could steal this name after our prior product didn't work out)
Thor: Ragnablock
 
Could also have names related to 4 instead of the triangle shape since it would be 4 blocks in one:

Quatrain 
For the Love of Quad

Or it could be The Prism! 
 

 

Or something like The Grip Blocker  Technically true I guess...

[Jared P]

Used the titanium card during my gripper workout on Wednesday. It's awesome. The stainless cards are great as well, and just as heavy duty. Prevents any kind of cheating of the set, and more durable (will basically last forever) than a CoC card.

Still going to get practice in with CoC cards once in a while to make it feel normal for the IronMind cert, so I ordered a few extras to keep them fresh, since they are 3 bucks a piece. But will likely use the titanium card normally in my workouts.

[Lucasraymond]

On 2/24/2024 at 3:49 AM, matek said:

Yeah that's the coolest for sure. 

Since 20 (parallel) x30 (other cert/comp block size) x38 (ghp block) doesn't violate the rule of triangle inequality;

one can make a a triangular prism with a height of 54mm (cc) to have a block to rule them all haha 

Just sent this to a local buddy that makes custom putters and asked him what he would think this would cost to make these out of aluminum with those dimensions and 54mm length for CC set. 

[Lucasraymond]

I think this would still be most economical…a replica of the Animal Hunter setting card. 

[C8Myotome]

Did a 155 coc 3 ccs with the stainless steel card today and it was fun 

 

[matek]

1 hour ago, Lucasraymond said:

I think this would still be most economical…a replica of the Animal Hunter setting card. 

This, or just simply have 2-3 different blocks. I think the precision cutting needed for the triangular prism would be relatively expensive. But I can be wrong, given @Cannon's earlier answer. 

But since we're on topic, it is possible to make a very fine-graded setting block, or more like silver bullet hold-type block, relatively cheap in the following way: 
Rectangular aluminum/steel plates arranged in this exact order and thickness (in mm):
1, 1, 4, 1, 1, 9, 3

Drill a hole in each one at one of the short side ends, put a bolt through them, and close it with a fly nut. By loosening the nut-> rotating the plates -> tightening the nut, one can make any block from 1mm to 20mm in 1mm increments without removing anything. Although this is not the only solution to the math behind it, the minimum number of plates is constant (7 for 1mm-20mm, like in this solution). The other dimensions of the plates can be for example 1"x4", but doesn't really matter as long as it's reasonable.

This was just one of my ideas to measure progress in block holds, but I never actually built it. 
For example, adjusting it to 11mm would look something like this (it is not a realistic drawing at all etc. I did this in like a minute):

51 minutes ago, C8Myotome said:

Did a 155 coc 3 ccs with the stainless steel card today and it was fun 

 

Strong! Your thumb pad is so big it looks like a big ball haha

 

 

Edited March 2 by matek

[Cannon]

2 minutes ago, matek said:

I think the precision cutting needed for the triangular prism would be relatively expensive.

I don't think so. Once you have a starting position the CNC can do the rest with reliable accuracy. 

5 minutes ago, matek said:

1, 1, 4, 1, 1, 9, 3

Drill a hole in each one at one of the short side ends, put a bolt through them, and close it with a fly nut. By loosening the nut-> rotating the plates -> tightening the nut, one can make any block from 1mm to 20mm in 1mm increments without removing anything.

This was a fun small puzzle to find the combinations. Not too hard, but fun  For a split second I was like "you can't make 3." Then I was like, "Duh, the 3."

[C8Myotome]

Cool idea but when this is me during a top set an object that fine in precision would be too complicated to use:

[Lucasraymond]

1 hour ago, Cannon said:

I don't think so. Once you have a starting position the CNC can do the rest with reliable accuracy. 

This was a fun small puzzle to find the combinations. Not too hard, but fun  For a split second I was like "you can't make 3." Then I was like, "Duh, the 3."

The issue is building a fixture and setup…if the one corner was 90 deg instead of 96.9 deg you wouldnt have to mill it and would be easier. Getting machining quotes from multiple places would be optimal. 

[Lucasraymond]

Pricing on the triangular block with 20, 30, 38 and 54mm length would be around $18-20

 

Matek’s Gripper Set Block

Edited March 2 by Lucasraymond

[matek]

15 hours ago, Lucasraymond said:

Pricing on the triangular block with 20, 30, 38 and 54mm length would be around $18-20

 

Matek’s Gripper Set Block

Much cheaper than I thought! (but then again, I know little about the costs of fabricating these things)

[Lucasraymond]

6 minutes ago, matek said:

Much cheaper than I thought! (but then again, I know little about the costs of fabricating these things)

To make the first one it is $120 for setup, making a fixture but after that it is much cheaper. Pricing is based on 100 pieces. Laser engraving would be an option for a small upcharge. 

[Busa]

Look great I see a group buy on the horizon maybe..