Indexing plate!

-20F this morning again...........

This morning's project was to finish up on an indexing plate that I had started the day before. Not that I really needed
a project but wanted to test out the bolt circle feature on my Mitutoyo digital readout. As luck would have it I had a
steel disc or the right thickness but a little larger in diameter than the original indexing plates. I picked 40,44, 48, 50, 55, and
60 divisions but maybe using some prime numbers would have been better, not sure at this point. Anyway, I still have
the flip side to drill out. This is not a difficult process but rather a time consuming and requires one to be careful not to
make an error in drilling. I used a center drill for the whole process for the sake of rigidity. It was quite a bit of work
so had to show it off to all you HM folks. At least now I know that I can make pretty much custom make any indexing plate
I desire.

Here's a couple photos of the results:

 

Nice work. New callouses?

 

Thanks Cactus, Good to hear from you! I tried using the automated down feed but the sensitive hand feed was
a better choice. No callouses yet but I still have the flip side and maybe will make a few more of the lesser used permutations.
I hope you are doing well.

 

Durn purty hole patterns!

The nice wide spacing between holes on your 60 division circle makes it look like you could try making one with 127 divisions. That and the appropriate calculations (to get turns + holes) would allow you to produce the magical 127 tooth english-to-metric transition gear.

 

Durn purty hole patterns!

The nice wide spacing between holes on your 60 division circle makes it look like you could try making one with 127 divisions. That and the appropriate calculations (to get turns + holes) would allow you to produce the magical 127 tooth english-to-metric transition gear.

Interesting! I thought of that too for an outer most set of holes on side one of the plate. The flip side is reserved for a time when I need it
for something out of the ordinary. I would love to make a 127 tooth gear for the Monarch but would need a hob for that I suppose.
It would be a pretty big gear with large teeth but would be an interesting project. I'm not really sure where the gear would go either
in the gear train or the DP of the gears for that matter. Maybe someone on here knows where the gear would go.

If I have the time, I will drill the 127 holes this morning.

 

Careful drilling those 127 holes... If you look at that for too long, you might get hypnotized or something.

Ray

 

I just finished drilling the 127 holes in the indexing plate and just like the 4000 holes in Blackburn Lancashire, I had to count them all.




The hole centering jig I made a couple years ago proved useful for set up
to locate the center of the indexing plate.

 

Making a 127 tooth gear gets interesting using a 90 to 1 rotary table and a 127 tooth indexing plate...... It looks like
one needs to move the crank 90 holes on the 127 tooth index plate to advance one tooth on the table to do the job. I'm not sure
how I came up with this but I am pretty sure it will work.

 

You are absolutely right there, it's always worm-ratio x plate holes divided by the number you want - so e.g. if you wanted 45 holes with that worm and plate you'd move (90 x 127) / 45, 254 hole spaces or 2 full turns - remember the one you start moving the pin from is hole zero, count spaces between holes, not holes themselves, or start at zero before you move (yep, I've got that wrong, can give interesting tooth counts and a funky last tooth...)

Dave H. (the other one)

 

Great job, I'm sure John and Paul would be proud. Mike