A good buddy of mine ( yes, even I have a couple of mates !!:wink: ) asked me to explain how I made the indexing indents of the faceplate of my metal lathe.
For those that don't know what indexing is, it is simply using the spindle of your lathe to hold work in fixed positions to use other tools on the work piece. The lathe is ALWAYS switched off when doing indexing. I used this method on my last pen to do the grinding and I used it a lot on my Going for Gold pen.
Some lathes, especially wood lathes already have this feature. Often a 24 indent around the scroll chuck, for instance.
On a metal lathe like mine you could easily index the spindle by rigging up a locking pin over the primary spindle gear. There are loads of methods.
But then it occured to me the most members in USA prefer the fixed gearbox change gears instead of the loose ones like I have. Therefore, it's not as easy to get to the gears.
So here is a quick way of drilling 12 indents around your faceplate flange.
I simply used a large socket in the headstock chuck and a matching nut ( or bolthead ) in the tailstock chuck. The socket has 12 possible positions for the nut to engage in, so use one at a time to drill the flange with a centre drill. I think it's rare that anyone would need more than 12 indents. I use mostly 3.or 6
Nuts and sockets aren't exactly precision parts and naturally you will need to allow for the backlash slop. This is easy to do. You could clamp something to one of the jaws, like a pair of visegrips or a small G clamp or better still, the old school way of tying a string around the chuck with a weight hanging on it. The point is that the slop is always taken up in the same direction.
In the pics you will see two items painted mostly green. One is obviously the clamp to use when doing index work and the other is a clamp to hold the drill in the toolpost. I made mine and it is articulated and can hold a router too. You can buy these holders from places like LMS.
The carraige is locked in position and the cross slide used to advance the drill.
I hope this is of use to at least my buddy !!:biggrin:
For those that don't know what indexing is, it is simply using the spindle of your lathe to hold work in fixed positions to use other tools on the work piece. The lathe is ALWAYS switched off when doing indexing. I used this method on my last pen to do the grinding and I used it a lot on my Going for Gold pen.
Some lathes, especially wood lathes already have this feature. Often a 24 indent around the scroll chuck, for instance.
On a metal lathe like mine you could easily index the spindle by rigging up a locking pin over the primary spindle gear. There are loads of methods.
But then it occured to me the most members in USA prefer the fixed gearbox change gears instead of the loose ones like I have. Therefore, it's not as easy to get to the gears.
So here is a quick way of drilling 12 indents around your faceplate flange.
I simply used a large socket in the headstock chuck and a matching nut ( or bolthead ) in the tailstock chuck. The socket has 12 possible positions for the nut to engage in, so use one at a time to drill the flange with a centre drill. I think it's rare that anyone would need more than 12 indents. I use mostly 3.or 6
Nuts and sockets aren't exactly precision parts and naturally you will need to allow for the backlash slop. This is easy to do. You could clamp something to one of the jaws, like a pair of visegrips or a small G clamp or better still, the old school way of tying a string around the chuck with a weight hanging on it. The point is that the slop is always taken up in the same direction.
In the pics you will see two items painted mostly green. One is obviously the clamp to use when doing index work and the other is a clamp to hold the drill in the toolpost. I made mine and it is articulated and can hold a router too. You can buy these holders from places like LMS.
The carraige is locked in position and the cross slide used to advance the drill.
I hope this is of use to at least my buddy !!:biggrin: