Lame attempt at making indexing chuck

[Charley Davidson]

I set up my indexing head on my Burke, rigged up my collet chuck and an indicator to get all the detents the same and gave it a whirl. Everything was looking fine until I got back around to my starting point. As you can see it didn't turn out too well.

 

[8ntsane]

Charley

It looks like something slipped out of sync some how.. I hope that back plate wasnt a expensive piece. The only thing I can advise you on is use a spacer plate, or adapter plate like I use on my lathe. That way, if things go bad, you have a piece for another project. Even better, use a disc of a larger OD, and then you dont have to worry about drilling into the chucks mounting bolts.

A piece of 1 inch thick steel of the same OD, or 1 inch bigger is cheaper than back plates, and if you just spot them first, you could trim it off and start over, provided its over sized. Another thing the spacer/adapter plate is good for, is making your own version of the set true, ajustment. If your using a 3-jaw with
the back plate or spacer with index holes, it great to get the run out ,out too.

 

[Charley Davidson]

The back plate was cheap & I have another one also. But I think I'll just mount it on the lathe & turn it down till the holes are gone as it's a bit bigger than the chuck anyhow.

I may have moved the indexing pin as it is mounted with a collar like clamp, I'll give it another whirl.

 

[Charley Davidson]

If at first you don't succeed - think carefully before trying again Sorry for that and hope you still have a sense of humour

Something definately has slipped. How about a very small indent and rotate 360º to see if you come back to where "X marks the spot"?

Can't wait to hear about the next episode

Gordon

I was a comedian for 15 years so I still got the SOH:lmao:

I had planned on making a small indent and rotating it 360 before screwing up again

I might go to my shop in a bit and redo it.

 

[Charley Davidson]

It don't take me 3 times to get it right

I turned the back plate down till all the holes were gone and took a look at my setup. I had several things that could have contributed to the problem like the collets weren't tight enough, but the real culprit was the brass collar on the indexing head & still could be an issue. When tightening the collet in the indexing head it would turn the whole thing even with the collar tight. I was able to get it tightened enough to do the job and it turned out perfect. Now I need to make the post that holds the detent mechanism and find or make one of those also. maybe tomorrow evening on the mount.

 

[8ntsane]

Second time is a charm.
Good thing the plate was a bit over size Charley,
At least you found the cause of the problems, got a handle on dealing with it, and gotter done.
What hole count did you use on the plate?

I guess now you need to make up the parts to clamp to the ways, and the plunger to hold position. You have seen the one I did, and it uses the handle off the rotary table. But I think if I had to do it again, I would just make a screw in type of deal, and not worry about the spring loaded. Would save a alot of time.

Looking good, and glad you got through the problems

 

[Charley Davidson]

Paul, yours is the one that inspired me to do mine, I still have to make the indexing pin and mount. I'm not sure if I can mount mine very securely on the flat part of my ways as there's not much of a flat area underneath, I may have to put mine on the raised upsidedown V ^ portion. I like the idea of a screw also pretty simple. Don't know my hole count, forgot to count them but had intended to.

 

[8ntsane]

Charley

My lathe doesnt have much under the bottom lip either, maybe 3/4 inch. So if you can make it work on the flat, it saves time cutting Vee in the base.

You will need a usefull prime # to get common divisions you want.
I chose 60 holes @ 6 degree,s spacing. That gave me the most usefull line up of divisions. But there are othe usefull prime #s that will work allso.

60 will give you ability of getting 2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20,30,60 divisions
Others can be good for less divisions, and more basic. Some guys will only need to put bolt patterns of small evenly spaced #s. Here is for instance

24 will give you 2,3,4,6,8 divisions very common for bolt patterns used. Spacing on the 24 is every 15 degree,s

Other usefull prime #s
72 is allso a good one. That will give you 5 degree,s between holes,

Just take your prime #, and divide into 360, then that # by the amount of divisions you want to do. You will soon figure out what a given hole count will, and will not do for you.

Hope I didnt confuse the issue for you

 

[8ntsane]

Hi Charley

Im not sure exactly what your going to be using your indexer for, but here is a few more idea,s for you. I some times need to cut splines on the ID or OD of parts. I have a variety of dividing plates that I use for direct indexing on the lathe. They are installed on the LH end of the spindle, and indexed with the spring loaded pin as usual.

The arbour is a expanding spindle plug, and the dividing plates bolt on directly. Using the dividing plates on the lathe spindle give me a bunch of divisions that I cant get on the chuck indexer. Just another way of direct indexing on your lathe.





Thought Id plant the seed, never know what grows from it. (':thinking:') (':biggrin:')

 

[Charley Davidson]

Mine has 48 indents, good or bad or so so? I'm assuming that's 7.5 degrees.

Started on my mount and got frustrated with my mill, I'm so ready for a Bridgeport or something of that size & quality