OMB Dividing Head Help

Deema

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When I bought a clone Bridgeport mill I was lucky and it came with a dividing head. Now, not having owned or used one before I’ve tried to find a manual for it without luck. if anyone has a copy that they could let me have a copy of I’d be extremely grateful.
I think it will divide both the spindle but also rotate the spindle vertically, however, the controls are very stiff and the gears to vertically index it don’t seem to want to mesh..........or I may have got it all wrong and they are fir something else. I’ve taken off the dividing plate, and everything was well oiled.....buy very old oil. What I’ve seen suggests to me it was extremely well engineered.
Any background on the head would be really interesting.

The centre support also came with it, but isn’t for the dividing head, the centre is too low so I need to make a riser block.27792D51-B8FD-4F9F-B43C-5AAD1AB37FB3.jpeg5225F18E-ECDD-498F-A353-C2FDBC6EFBE5.jpeg7ADEF8E3-C0E9-442E-AD2E-C771756FA73A.jpeg
 
You are correct; that looks like a very well-made unit.

From here the tailstock looks almost the proper height, and it also looks adjustable.....like the two side-to-side thru bolts would allow the entire centre bit to move up/down.

The dividing head also seems to have a "super-spacer" type of function built in with the notched ring behind the chuck and the pin to select a notch...it looks like the yellow handle on top dis-engages that pin.

I'll have a look around for a manual......

-brino
 
Wow Brino you're right, it is Italian. Very cool. I would have guessed China or Japan
-Mark
 
Thanks for the link and info. The unit in the linklooks almost exactly the same model. Mine has a centre height if 110mm rather than the 120mm stated, probably just a slightly larger model? The cascade of gears that it has on the end I dont have. Where this cascade of gears is I have a shaft that looks to be for a handle, key with a knurled nut but no handle......or im missing the mysterious gear cascade.

I haven’t looked at the centre too closely the chap I bought the mill of said it wasn’t the right centre height.......but looking at the link and your suggestion of the two bolts I’m going to take a much harder look at it tomorrow as it appears it might be the correct centre for it.

If you do have the manual that you could let me have a copy of that would be awsome.
 
I’m delighted it’s italian, it just smells of quality. There are oilers everywhere, and when I took the dividing plate off, the shaft had oilway slots machined along it’s length.....its only about 50mm long (2”) and I’ve never seen that level of detail on something that isn’t designed to be under load and turning constantly.
I don’t want to damage it, and I’m being very cautious of how much pressure I’m applying to anything; Im hoping it is a decent accurate piece of kit.
 
A universal dividing head. Looks like a solid piece of kit. Does quick indexing via the notched ring behind the chuck (reversible, too, it appears), regular indexing via the plate and crank, and relative indexing via the gear/shaft input. I lucked into something similar. While the mechanical layout is different, the manual for mine goes deep into the theory and operation of the different modes and might be useful for figuring out the operation.

http://vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=5797
 
Looks like a winner! I probably would have it pulled apart by now to clean the internals and familiarize myself with its functions.
 
The end gearing is for differential indexing so that prime numbers can be indexed, and also so that spirals may be cut. If this is a 40:1 ratio unit, info pertaining to any other universal dividing head of the same ratio would be appropriate.
 
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