A little while back, I posted an easy build for a thread dial for the 9 inch South Bend lathe. We'll, I am making another one that will look more like the factory one. There are and will be many more photos on my web site. I am posting the gear here because it always seems to be the biggest problem making your own dial. So here goes. If anyone needs more info, let me know.
For those of you who want to make your own thread dial for your lathe, the gear is always the problem, today I successfully made a nice quality gear very simply. I got the idea from a similar setup I saw on the net. I made this little contraption in about an hour to see if it worked. It works nicely , so I will probably make a better one. It is simply a means to hold an aluminum gear blank and index it accurately. I'm attaching photos here so anyone can copy it. I ground a 1/4 " square HHS tool to cut a 29 degree , 8 TPI acme thread and put it in a boring bar and fly cut the gear teeth on my Burke mill. I will be making a whole write up on this on my private web site. I am also going to machine a body similar to the SB version over the next few days. If anyone wants , I will post that process also. The nice part of this is this gear has cost nothing to make. Everything is from my scrap box. Any questions , just ask.
Mark
For those of you who want to make your own thread dial for your lathe, the gear is always the problem, today I successfully made a nice quality gear very simply. I got the idea from a similar setup I saw on the net. I made this little contraption in about an hour to see if it worked. It works nicely , so I will probably make a better one. It is simply a means to hold an aluminum gear blank and index it accurately. I'm attaching photos here so anyone can copy it. I ground a 1/4 " square HHS tool to cut a 29 degree , 8 TPI acme thread and put it in a boring bar and fly cut the gear teeth on my Burke mill. I will be making a whole write up on this on my private web site. I am also going to machine a body similar to the SB version over the next few days. If anyone wants , I will post that process also. The nice part of this is this gear has cost nothing to make. Everything is from my scrap box. Any questions , just ask.
Mark