Author Topic: AOG's lathe tool post dial indicator holder  (Read 3323 times)

Offline AOG

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AOG's lathe tool post dial indicator holder
« on: May 30, 2015, 03:23:20 AM »
I was fighting with my magnetic indicator holder and four jaw chuck a few weekends ago trying to get some stock centered when I thought there must be a better way. Thanks to the power of the interwebs I saw a piece of tooling that I thought might help. This guy had come up with an indicator holder that was mounted like a lathe tool in a quick change tool post holder. It was so simple I don't know why I didn't think of it before. This is my version of his tool.

The first thing I did was measure the post diameter of my various indicators to determine what size holes I would need. I also measured the diameter of the face on one of my indicators to make an estimate of the length I would need. I just have to add a quick note here. Please measure the face of your largest diameter indictor instead of grabbing the closest one. Otherwise you will end up with tool only partially supported when you use the larger indicator. Don't ask me how I know.... :facepalm2: I started with some 1/2 in square cold rolled steel. I cut the length based on the length of the tool holder plus 1/2 the diameter of the indicator plus another 1.5 inches for the various post holes. It came out to be a little more than 3 inches. Next I squared up the bar in the mill



The the holes for the posts were drilled.



Then the tool was flipped 90 degrees and the hole for the clamp screw  was drilled. I ended up using a 1/4 20 SHCS.



Then the tool was cut using a slitting saw.



The last step was to tap the clamping hole.



Here is a picture of the completed tool mounted in my lathe.



Hopefully someone will find this simple tool usefull.

Tony

« Last Edit: May 30, 2015, 03:34:37 AM by AOG »

Offline sshire

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Re: AOG's lathe tool post dial indicator holder
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2015, 12:10:27 PM »
I love simple solutions. Nicely done.
Best,
Stan

 

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