Group Project: Dividing Head - Organization and Design

The explanation for the worm support sounds fine to me. I see the reasons for wanting it supported on both sides, but if it's that much work to redesign the part I'm good either way.

For the electronic stuff, we can go there. You can either go with the gear chain to drive it, or use a sensor on the table or lead screw and move the dividing head as needed with a stepper/servo. For the gears, you don't need the electronics, but it's only as flexible as the stack of gears you have. I guess the question is, do the people building this want the ability? I mean, how often do you want to mill a helix? Are the other things you can make with it that are more common? I think I'd hesitate to get too far into this part yet, as the dividing head itself is a prerequisite. And the final design matters for the drive.
 
Ianagos said:
Typically I also see an eccentric bearing on the worm to it can be rotated to compensate for wear.
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The current design has that feature. Notice the arm on the inside of the mount. It also allow for rotating the Worm out of the way to allow for quick indexing.
 
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rwm said:
I know Tom Lipton has done it:
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That is one of the cooler hacks I've seen lately.

Also, way outside the scope of what I envisioned using this thing for. You can bet I will give it a try once I have a dividing head put together, though. :)
 
I agree with @ttabbal if it is a PITA to redesign to add the support then i am also good. Either way im farther along then before bc i dont have a dividing head period.
 
The eccentric on the work is not only for adjusting for wear, but it so you can disengage the worm to use the quick indexing on the spindle.

I believe I can add a second support and still keep the ability to disengage the gears. I am looking at where all the snowball will roll down this hill. Give me some time to play with this idea......
 
Shotgun said:
This statement piqued my interest, @extropic.
To make a spiral, there would have to be some sort of coordination to lock the rotation of the dividing head's spindle to the advancement of the mill table it was attached to.

First, do I have that right?
Does the mill table have to have some sort of power take off to drive the dividing head?
Do these commercial dividing heads also allow the piece to be positioned at any arbitrary angle as this design allows?
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Yes, you have that correct.
The "power take off" (in pre-electronic times) was to remove the nearside handwheel and set up the drive train from the table leadscrew.
A Universal Dividing Head is capable of using indexing plates as per any Dividing Head.

I never intended to imply that either a gear drive accessory set or an electronic drive were within the scope of this existing project.
I did intend to advise participants that both are possible "next steps" for the adventurous hobbyists. A "complete" mechanical drive gear train is a massive undertaking (so are many hobbyist projects). However, it wouldn't surprise me to see a future thread describing the build of an electronic drive attachment to one of the dividing heads being built here.
 
One never knows.......
You got me thinking, and everyone knows that it is always dangerous when I start thinking......
 
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