Estate auction find: CEJ Mikrokator 509 E-55

[Mill Lee farm]

Ok, it’ll be a little while until I get to those B&S indicators.
Meanwhile I thought I’d share a much better success story!

I got a load of stuff at a local estate, online only auction. I had no idea what this thing in the fuzzy photo was but it looked cool and I had to have it!
Heck the base and thick pole would be worth repurposing if nothing else, right?

Anyway, I seemed to be the only one interested and won it at I think $45?

I picked my haul up and quickly tested it. Worked smooth! Good to go!

Anyway, I’ve been deep diving into how to self test my new used 24”x36” surface plate and came across Repeat-o-meters. I thought “Hey, that looks familiar!”

A little time cleaning up tonight and I’m thrilled to announce I have a .00002” indicator with .001” travel!

It’s a bit big at 4” wide face, but it would look good on the end of a shop built Repeat-o-meter clone wouldn’t it? It can serve dual duty!

15” tall with 2” post
Platen is 3-1/2” x 1-3/8” and reversible flat bottom
20-1/2 lbs!
I’m looking all over for very very small stuff to measure now!

 

[JRaut]

Nice find!

Be REALLLLLLY careful with that gage.

The needle on it is insanely delicate and can break easily. Make sure you know which way you're adjusting it when you're using the fine adjustment knob. If you bump it into something the needle will snap right off.

Ask me how I know...

 

[Mill Lee farm]

@JRaut thanks for the warning!
So are you refering to overtravel of the ball end? as in "don't test it by tapping it with your finger!"

Or do you mean that if you fine adjust (front of the indicator face) too far and reach the internal gear limit it can shear something off?

Just trying to understand what to watch out for.

I'm considering making a slip on cover for the end when not in use.

 

[pontiac428]

That's pretty amazing, especially the stand. But what can be done within the confines of earthbound gravity that would benefit from that level of precision? 0.5 um is at least 1/10th of a gnat's ass, but only in a temperature controlled room with a lot of gnats to measure to build a statistical set from!

 

[Mill Lee farm]

The first thing I did after clean up was (after dremel wire wheel rust removal) stone the platen with my brand new precision ground flat stones......

Then I measured my precision ground flat stones! (width anyway)

I could indeed see slight movement (.00004"?) as I moved the stones around. Of course at this level supporting the stones/holding them flat to the platen probably had enough inaccuracy to account for the difference!

So I learned that this uses a twisted (bronze?) wire system to eliminate backlash.
The needle is drawn glass and stuck between the twists! wow.

cool info found on the net:
engineeringtribe.com johansson-mikrokator-comparator

And this guy takes his apart to show us how it works!

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[Illinoyance]

Got one almost exactly like yours except it is marked Swedish Gauge Corp. of America.