Indexer?

[Tom-s]

Hello

New member living in Concord, Va., retired mechanical engineer, hobby machinist, woodworker, mechanic, do it yourselfer, neighborhood fixer, etc.

I have owned a SB 9A lathe purchased used many years ago, reasonably in good shape and came with many accessories and new spare parts.

One of the items is an indexer of sorts. I am seeking some help with it. The housing fits in the cross slide rotating mounting hole. One end of the shaft accepts a lathe chuck. The other end accepts the index plates. Two of the parts have mfg numbers. It is painted SB gray. When I got it it had some rust inside and did not turn freely. I took it apart, chased new bearings, and put away in box for years. I was not smart enough to take photos at that time.

Would someone know what it exactly is, how it is used, user manual availability, and bearing orientation? The bearings have a boss on one side and therefore proper orientation required.

Thanks for your help. And yes the smart phones are a great picture taking asset!!

Tom

 

[Tom-s]

There are 2 parts with numbers on them. I rough assembled it today. It mounts directly to SB cross slide and has zero scribe line for alignment. A chuck screws into it. The two chucks are in alignment with each other. If you turn 90 degrees and screw cross slide all the way out and it will not pass the main chuck making it useless in that position. Opposite side of swivel is threaded hole for possible alternate mounting and a hole with set screw to hold some kind shaft

I am further confused to its use.

 

[piper184]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.
It certainly looks like it could be used as an indexer but seems overly complicated and heavy for just that task. I don't recall ever seeing anything like that in the old SB catalogs.
Maybe it is for cutting gears or spirals or something?
Hopefully someone will know what it is and how to use it.
Very interesting device.

 

[LucknowKen]

Welcome Tom: I have not found that type of SBL indexer in the manuals/catalogs.
It might be useful for producing items similar to these:

 

[Tom-s]

To add further confusion to the indexer there are 4 index plates.
30 for 12 degree increments
36 for 10 degree increments
12 for 30 degree increments
The above are about 5/16 thick

4 6 3 2 for unknown use/spacing. It is about 1/8 thick and fits on a boss on the 12 plate.

3 plates are bolted in place, however the thin plate is free to rotate on the 12 plate

The more I study this thing, the more confused I get and the more I hope there is someone out there that can help explain it. Perhaps it will end up being some rare, very expensive sought after item further necessitating close surveillance by Smith Wesson/Ruger.

 

[talvare]

Really interesting lathe accessory. I've never seen something like this being used on a lathe, but it sure would add a lot of capability usually accomplished on a milling machine.
Very nice. Keep us posted.
Ted

 

[piper184]

Can you see any marks on the teeth of the gears that would indicate that they had been run against a worm gear?
Perhaps it was also a dividing head and is missing some parts?

 

[Weldingrod1]

Its clearly a nice indexer!

I think the sliding plate is to block off the slots you aren't using when you do small numbers of divisions. If they were super sneaky they have arranged it so small rotations of the blocking plate vs the main plate open the various divisions one at a time.

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