Re indexing round column mills the easy way

Thanks @woodchucker , appreciate it. No sense in being reckless with eyesight!
 
slow-poke said:
How accurate is this?
Click to expand...

gonzo said:
It's difficult to get a number on it but it is certainly much more accurate than anything else I have tried.
Click to expand...

It is a neat idea, but as wide as the reflection pattern is on the peep sight bar, I’d be surprised if it’s all that accurate. But, I was wrong once before. ;) It should be easy enough to indicate for repeatability. My OCD (anal is such a harsh term) wouldn't let me not do that.

Tom
 
I had looked into the laser target on a far wall as a means of mill/vise alignment before and rejected it. Diode laser beams have an inescapable beam divergence. For lasers that I have used. this amounted to about .05º. Better optics as in lasers used for gun sights could improve on that. My mill has a distance of around 10.5" from the column axis to the spindle axis. which would lead to an uncertainty of around .009" in the x axis position. The width of the target will add to this uncertainty. Another factor adding to the uncertainty is the parallelness of the column axis to the plumb line.
 
The target is, as mentioned, a piece of white kite string (very thin) hanging from a screw, with a weight on the end. There is a black cloth behind it for contrast. The 10 1/2' distance is measured from the centre line of the column, not the spindle. Since any lateral movement is around the column, the laser is aiming relative to the column. Before changing the elevation of the head, I look at the laser dot on the string. When I realign the head, I try to duplicate the appearance of the dot on the string. It's been working for me for some years now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top