Added A Trav A Dial To My Craftsman 101.27430 Lathe

[wa5cab]

56,

My suggestion for solving the DI on the carriage stop question would be to mount possible a narrow piece of channel machined to fit on top of the front of the left leg, with the leg bolt holding it on. That would give you a mounting point 2 or 3 inches to the left of where the typical carriage stop can move.

Another possibility that I actually did on my 3996 (late 12x36) was to mount the DI in what used to be a broken carriage stop that to use I attach to the rear edge of the front way to the right of the carriage. The limitation of this is that if you back the carriage up enough it runs into the DI body. But I minimized this problem by buying a DI with a 2" operating range.

 

[56type]

56,

My suggestion for solving the DI on the carriage stop question would be to mount possible a narrow piece of channel machined to fit on top of the front of the left leg, with the leg bolt holding it on. That would give you a mounting point 2 or 3 inches to the left of where the typical carriage stop can move.

Another possibility that I actually did on my 3996 (late 12x36) was to mount the DI in what used to be a broken carriage stop that to use I attach to the rear edge of the front way to the right of the carriage. The limitation of this is that if you back the carriage up enough it runs into the DI body. But I minimized this problem by buying a DI with a 2" operating range.

I'll look into that...The problem seems to be setting it up so that the head of the DI will fit with the face still visible. All the odd angles there at the headstock have the DI setting so far out that getting it to contact the carriage is an issue.

 

[wa5cab]

First, the range of the dial indicator is 2.1" vice 5". And although it will fit either way, last time that I used it, I put it on the rear edge of the front way. But it will mount either way. Because you have less space between the ways, you will probably have to scale everything down. But as you can see from the photos below, the viewing angle is adjustable. The cast body of the holder was originally a micrometer style carriage stop (maker unknown). It was damaged and the home-made clamp bar didn't work. The body was internally threaded part way through. I made a threaded shoulder bushing from some scrap SS I had lying around and drilled it through to match the mounting tube of the DI. After stud locking it into the cast body, I drilled and tapped a hole for the thumb screw. It obviously does not have the range of a travel dial but within its limitations, works quite well. I actually used it with a jury-rigged clamp while I was milling the clamp block.