DTI face

[Romoshka]

Has anybody ever replaced the face on a DTI? Got this in a box of misc tools years ago and used it and it worked fine. Somehow it got shoved into the back of a cabinet and was forgotten until recent clean up day found it…like this.

 

[T Bredehoft]

GOogle "Long Island Instraments"

 

[MyLilMule]

Send it to Mark. He might be able to fix it for you. He's probably fixed a dozen or so of my auction finds.

 

[Bone Head]

For quite a few years I was the calibration technician for a mid sized aerospace shop. Worked with a mess of indicators; never saw the like. So I'm asking what in the name of all things holy are you cleaning/lubing/preserving your measuring equipment with?

 

[rwdenney]

For quite a few years I was the calibration technician for a mid sized aerospace shop. Worked with a mess of indicators; never saw the like. So I'm asking what in the name of all things holy are you cleaning/lubing/preserving your measuring equipment with?

This looks old, probably a lot older than any working shop's threshold of replacement for whatever reason. The yellowing of the crystal is common in certain types of plastics used for watches, clocks, and other dialed instruments made, say, in the 20's and 30's. And a painted dial will eventually peel from the effects of what the plastic crystal gassed off that caused it to turn yellow.

It may not be the lubricant at all.

That said, indicators should be lubed like watches, and not like lathes. A tiny drop in key strategic spots and no more. Even then, some parts might run better dry, and a dry surfaces don't attract dust and grit. Any oil off-gasses volatiles, so this indicator might just have been bathed in too much oil. Lathes swim in oil; instruments do not.

Maybe one of those $15 import indicators will have the same size dial and scale as this one, and it could become a donor. And I've been known to draft clock dials in a computer drawing program and print them out and paste them on the cleaned metal dial surface.

Rick "watch dial restoration is expensive--probably also true for indicators" Denney

 

[Bone Head]

I had a rep from Federal tell me that drop dial indicators with jeweled movements should not be oiled with anything. They were designed to operate dry. My local indicator repair shop held to that belief also.
Years of trying to convince operators who couldn't understand why their well lubed indicators were sticking (WD-40) the next day got me to the point I tried to get the stuff banned from the shop floor. I was buying denatured alcohol by the quart/gallon every month or so to degunk these....again...and again...

 

[Romoshka]

For quite a few years I was the calibration technician for a mid sized aerospace shop. Worked with a mess of indicators; never saw the like. So I'm asking what in the name of all things holy are you cleaning/lubing/preserving your measuring equipment with?

I’m baffled. I never do anything special to my DTIs. Just wipe any oil off of em. This wound up pushed in the back of a cabinet top shelf and forgotten for probably another 10 years. Found it like this.