Making Graduated Dials

mark_f said:
This has been a long argued topic on many forums and I don't intend to argue the point with anyone. I been doing this for a lot of years. That little hammer bang is not going to hurt the lathe. If you were going to make hundreds of dials , I would say make a special fixture but for just a few, it don't matter. I mount the dial on a solid shaft or make a mandrel. It is VERY important to support the outer end with a center in the tail stock. That little hammer bang is less than some interrupted cuts. if someone disagrees, they are free to do it their way.
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whoa, hold on there, I was just asking. no disrespect or argument. I have an old war unit, and just wanted to know how safe it is.
 
Silverbullet said:
Well now I have another use for my Gulledge too. Thanks Mark , I hate the tiny ones on my logan. I often thought of selling and finding a little bigger lathe with readable dials . But with all the tooling I have I'd go broke selling to replace.
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I am using my Gulledge dividing head for this. It is easier and cheaper to make new dials than change the machine out. The addition of roller thrust bearings makes a big difference also.
 
woochucker said:
whoa, hold on there, I was just asking. no disrespect or argument. I have an old war unit, and just wanted to know how safe it is.
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No problem....... I didn't mean any disrespect. I have been attacked before about my opinion and I was merely stating that this has been a long argued topic. There are some die hard opinions against this practice. No harm ... I apologize if I came off wrong.
 
mark_f said:
I am using my Gulledge dividing head for this. It is easier and cheaper to make new dials than change the machine out. The addition of roller thrust bearings makes a big difference also.
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I think Ill add thrust bearings to mine if I can ever get to that point. This waiting sucks big time another year of my life with doctors and hospitals. At this rate I may be able by April of 2018.
 
Hellkell said:
Do you have a picture of the roller bearing setup?

Nice dials.
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The compound and cross slide are different. I think there is a picture in my compound update thread and I will post photos in the cross feed thread ( as soon as I start it ).
 
I have used number and letter stamps before in set-ups that guide/control the stamps path like you have shown on this thread. And my experience has been disappointing. I have USA made stamps and none of them do a good enough job of centering the font. Your China stamps did a good job of stamp alignment:cool:. I guess when they made mine they didn’t expect anyone to use them in a jig:chagrin:. Maybe I will try a HF seto_O…Dave.
 
chips&more said:
I have used number and letter stamps before in set-ups that guide/control the stamps path like you have shown on this thread. And my experience has been disappointing. I have USA made stamps and none of them do a good enough job of centering the font. Your China stamps did a good job of stamp alignment:cool:. I guess when they made mine they didn’t expect anyone to use them in a jig:chagrin:. Maybe I will try a HF seto_O…Dave.
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I can't remember where I ordered mine from ( I think eBay) but they were CHEAP. They are made from that nasty black rough metal like some cheap
Chinese tools are made from, but they are well made at the end where the letters and numbers are and they work well. It is surprising.
 
I too have made several new dials for some of my machines, but I have the privilege of owning a #2 B&S universal mill and dividing head to do the graduating in the same manner as is shown, but with the tool mounted in a fly cutter arbor and I lay out three lines on the dial to define the length of the lines and hand crank the knee inwards to do the cutting, with the dividing head set on a raising block to be parallel with the spindle axis. I do the numbering on my Gorton pantograph engraver, using a forming guide to form the curvature of the engraving depth. Gorton made small diameter metal cutting saws to cut graduations also, I have a set but have not used them for the purpose. I did make a fixture for the engraver that can be used to cut graduations, it is a slot that the stylus is guided in, and a stepped gage block that limits the length of the lines; I used it to make a flat graduated dial in degrees for the Gorton radial engraving attachment that I made; with it one can engrave concentric circles with radial limit lines and also engrave characters in a radial fashion; I used it to make engine room (and bridge) telegraph faces for the steam yacht Cangarda (Google it).
 
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