2013 POTD Thread Archive

[mattthemuppet2]

not quite as fancy as Charlie's DTI setup, but I found some sites describing how to repurpose digital tire depth gauges as a poorman's DRO. Cost about $10 total and has ~50mm travel on each axis. It's made the world of difference to using my lathe!




I have another one sitting in its packet to attach to the tail stock once I've finished making a drill chuck arbor. Only downside so far is that one of the gauges has a rather aggressive power saving feature, so it needs to be jiggled occasionally to stop it turning off.

 

[papermaker]

I had a local fab shop plasma cut 6 disks out of 1/8" CRS so I could machine out some indexing plates for the dividing head I just got. Using the CNC mill it went pretty quick. When I got the first one done I noticed that the holes looked like they were not cut exactly centered. The first pictures shows how off center the holes were. I made an arbor for the disk and chucked it in the lathe. Wow way out of round. I cut the edge back until it was round. The plasma cut edge was hard as a brick to cut. I used a carbide tool and lots of oil but got it round.

 

[Charley Davidson]

not quite as fancy as Charlie's DTI setup, but I found some sites describing how to repurpose digital tire depth gauges as a poorman's DRO. Cost about $10 total and has ~50mm travel on each axis. It's made the world of difference to using my lathe!

View attachment 63586
View attachment 63587

I have another one sitting in its packet to attach to the tail stock once I've finished making a drill chuck arbor. Only downside so far is that one of the gauges has a rather aggressive power saving feature, so it needs to be jiggled occasionally to stop it turning off.

Actually I think yours is quite fancy & cool, I also googled 50MM to inches and yours has more travel than mine. The instal is nice & clean also. I may go that route for a temporary on my lathe and my quil until I start earning some more cash. Please give some more details on your instal along with where to get the depth mikes.

 

[NoShopSkills]

Maybe this doesn't qualify since I didn't really "do" anything in my shop, but maybe it'll bring back memories for some of you. My search for a mill ended today with this XLO, so I called a wrecker and towed it home.



She came with 2 axis DROs, some R8 collets, 2 clamp sets, a nice vice and a couple hundred pieces of tooling too. No 3 phase in the shop yet, so it looks like I'll be ordering a VFD Monday morning. I'm not up for a full teardown and clean up just yet. 1) I just finished a Sheldon lathe rebuild mess and 2) (especially #2) I need to make a few odds and ends ASAP. I can't wait however to solvent off the tar and nicotine stench, as the previous owner was a little rat like man, that can't possibly live much longer if he smokes all day like he did for the 2 hours it took us to get loaded up. Every time I touch anything that came home with me, my hands reek like an ashtray.



It's suffered some heavy repairs as I can't find too many parts (all of the handles and several of the head pieces) that haven't been brazed or welded, but the price was right and it completes my capability wish list. Now I can weld, plasma cut, turn, thread, bend/form, drill, cast, shrink, stretch, shear and finally, MILL!!!!



Looks kinda stately with the rain and fall leaves as a backdrop doesn't she?

 

[Charley Davidson]

ow, you can even mill up side down with it:lmao: Nice unit but I don't see the DRO:thinking:

 

[NoShopSkills]

ow, you can even mill up side down with it:lmao: Nice unit but I don't see the DRO:thinking:

Yeah... I removed the screen and the mount arm it and the collet holder sit on, so that it wouldn't get snapped off by the tow truck driver. Just didn't have time to put it back on before it got dark. I'd run out and take a photo right now, but it's raining cats and dogs. Better photos when she's all together and under power I promise.

 

[awander]

Based on the info I got from one of the Yahoo groups I belong to, I made my own homemade "Clamptite" tool.


I had never heard of these before this week; they allow you to make your own hose clamps out of any solid wire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb1U6aaTozI

I also included in the photo above, a sample clamp that I made(around one of the duds from my shotgun snap-cap making last week)

 

[Philco]

Andy, that is one cool tool. This is a tool that should be in everyone's toolbox. It looks simple enough to make. Could you lay the tool beside a ruler so I can see the deminsions. I'm thinking that this would make a nice Christmas gift for the maechanical type men in my family. Thanks again for taking the time to post this.

 

[NoShopSkills]

Nice unit but I don't see the DRO:thinking:

Here ya go Thomas...er Charley ) and unlike most of the 2nd hand stuff I can barely afford, the company that made this one is not only still in business, but they even offer free manual access on their website. D200XXX?

 

[mattthemuppet2]

Actually I think yours is quite fancy & cool, I also googled 50MM to inches and yours has more travel than mine. The instal is nice & clean also. I may go that route for a temporary on my lathe and my quil until I start earning some more cash. Please give some more details on your instal along with where to get the depth mikes.

thanks! Not an original idea by any means, but I've never let that stop me before. They're supposed to be 1in/25mm travel, but if you take it to pieces and find out whatever stop it has to limit travel, then remove that, you'll find that they will measure out to 45-55mm before the reading goes haywire. All three are from different eBay sellers - just put "digital tire depth gauge" into the eBay search and you'll get a long list, I just chose the cheapest each time as they're all fundamentally the same. Only downside is that the one on the compound shuts off aggressively and doesn't remember its previous reading (although the cross slide one does), so I have to jiggle it every so often. I'll probably replace that one with the one I got recently for the tail stock if the new one is better.

As for how to make them, they're pretty simple. Take it apart and remove any metal slide spring (if it has one) and cut off whatever nub/ guide etc that stops the slide overextending. Cut off the side tabs. Mark the slide where the reading goes crazy (travel limit). Then finagle some kind of mounting set up. The one on the cross slide was simple, just an old hard drive magnet, a few pieces of crap metal and screws. The one on the compound (underneath) has a captive spring so I can use it as a DTI of sorts with a magnet at the end and a bunch on the side. The magnet at the end sticks to a piece of scrap steel that I 5min epoxied to the side of the compound (so I can remove it later if I need to). That's about it really. Some others I've seen have been much fancier and tidier, but it all depends on your abilities, needs and set up. This works a treat for me and it was a complete revelation when I machined a piece of rod to size to thread for a drill chuck arbor - no more guessing the dimensions and overshooting! It ended up 0.2mm undersize, partly I think due to my complete mathematical inability