I can't believe how much better a good dial indicator is!

C-Bag said:

I think I've been bitten by the machining bug for 5-6yrs too. My brother worked as a machinist for most of his life and I referred to him when I got stuck.

You are a veritable font of knowledge about tools! That Wiki on Brown&Sharpe was facinating. I do small scale manufacturing here in my garage and am a one man show. So I don't often have time research but I do spend a lot of time on eBay periodically. It is really odd what gets mobbed and what gets ignored. So I can't get too attached and like a virtual vulture just have to sit, wait and watch. One of those handles would be useful, but I've not used my set since the late 80's while still a car mech. After I went to packing house equipment it's just sat. Now that I know what I'm looking for I'll add that to my search. If I remember right I paid $15-20 for that old set.

One of my last scores on eBay was a 14" Starrett vernier master height gage. I was also looking for snugs for my DI's and TI too. All the dial and digital height gages were going out of sight but vernier's were just sitting. This one came up with a ton of snugs and doodads and I didn't even notice it had a BestTest in the lot. All for $110+ something like $30 shipping. I had no problem using a vernier(just got to put on my high powered glasses and not until recently somebody in the trade pointed out it was a "master bar" and those things go for over $2,000 new! It has been so used the paint on the base is worn off, but it was well taken care of and works and measures perfectly. No case, but my wife made a cover for it and it is protected.

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I do a lot of research and have time to do it as I am both retired and disabled. What I can't do physically is compensated by a desire for knowledge. I think that is common for disabled people to help stay active and stave off the depression of the restrictions that disability brings. One aspect of ebay which I find useful in searches is the click the "NEWLY LISTED" button on a search. Often you can get really good deals by catching newly listed items at low prices with buy it now. Some things don't come up on searches because the seller lists it under the wrong category and often I find items by searching using the Bing search engine and the results will show items which are on ebay under some very awkward categories. That's how I found a new Kennedy 2 drawer riser box to place under my Kennedy 8 drawer machinists tool box. Used ones were selling over 100 bucks and new ones could be had for 278-350 bucks. A lady whose husband was changing jobs within his company had two new ones never used and they were both buy it now for 100 bucks apiece. I bought one and advised her she should raise the price of the other and sell it under a different category and it would sell fast. Three weeks later I checked and she still had it under the wrong category and unsold.

That is a nice gauge, and I can tell it was a high priced Starrett item. 200 bucks back in the time when that height gauge was made would be in today's dollars more like 500+ dollars. A lot of expensive older Starret and B&S stuff can be had for a steal today as so many shops have closed as industry is leaving the USA. Hopefully that trend is being reversed because if not this country is in trouble. Got to avoid politics discussions here so that is all I will say on that subject.

A lot of people do not like Vernier measuring devices. Back in my high school years a slide rule was the rage, before digital calculators came out. The slide rule had Vernier readouts which made Vernier reading something I learned at an earlier age. I have some vernier calipers, and vernier depth gauges and have little problem reading them as long as I have my magnifying lamp or a magnifying glass. Vernier calipers are surprisingly accurate and I read somewhere where they are more accurate than dial calipers but I am sure there are plenty of folks who will dispute that.

Recently I purchased a lot of nachinist's tools which had several items I wanted in the lot. Included in the lot was an item I wasn't that interested in, a Moore and Wright Micro 2000 digital micrometer (British) which was developed in 1974 and sold between 1978 and 1988 then replaced by more advanced technology. But the Micro 2000 was the first digital micrometer ever made and was a leader in the field at that time. They are collectors items today and I have listed it for sale on ebay. After it sat in a box for two months I decided to sell it and I checked it out. Surprisingly it works perfectly or at least according to the manual. Opening the jaws too fast can cause a zero error so you must touch the off switch to re-zero the scale and open the jaws more slowly. The jaws close on their own at a dampened speed like a cushion so it is quite an amazing instrument. I have about sold all my collection of pool cues and it's time to start selling some of the duplicates and unwanted machinists stuff too.

C-Bag said:

Sorry Wayne, I'm just not getting the hang of this forums quote format. The rollers I've got are exactly 2 1/2" in dia. I've given a bunch away to friends and my brother. Used them everything imaginable and still have that drawer full.

I also have a some 80/20 left over from a great score off of Craigslist. I got a total of 75ft. of 10 series 2"x2" 80/20 plus corner angles, hardware and all kinds of fittings. They had decided to scrap an old DIY CNC router table and it was made out of that 80/20. I've been busily repurposing it and will use it for the frame along with those rollers for my version of your steady rest.

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The quotes come up automatically when I click the respond button at the bottom of the post to which I am replying. It supplies a reference which helps in response which is great if you don't have photographic memory of the text you am responding to. That 80/20 is great stuff. It should make a very rigid frame for roller rests.

I aligned my roller rests at first with a rod centered in the lathe chuck and got them pretty close but the rod was somewhat droopy. I could have done better with a long wood dowel or piece of 1/2 copper pipe. Then I had a brainstorm and bought one of those Chinese bore lights which has the shape of a cartridge so it will fit in a rifle of whatever caliber you choose. I bought the 50 BMG but they sent a 5.56 AR-15 boresight. and the batteries were supposed to be supplied but they weren't and so I ordered batteries. After all that they apologized about the wrong sight and about the batteries but the batteries weren't supposed to be included and etc etc etc.... so much for Chinese stuff on ebay. Anyway I put the bore sight in the lathe but I had to wrap tape around one end (I anticipated this because cartridges are tapered) turning on the laser before chucking. The sighter worked well. For exact roller rest centering I will place a 1" length of dowel the diameter I want to use and place it in the rollers as a target, and adjust the rollers for center on the dowel face. The chuck is rotated to check for centering and if the laser is off center line the dot will circle/rotate on the target (because I used tape around the sight it is not exact in the chuck). If so it can still be used to center the rollers just by getting the dot to circle a dot marked on the center of the target. This gets the rest spot on for the work being turned, which in my case is cue shafts or cue butts, and I then mark the frame on each support for the 3 different diameters I will be using most so I can return to those settings without re-sighting. I have sighted the rests at the tailstock end and also the rests at the spindle end (shooting the laser through the spindle bore). There may be some perfectly cylindrical sights that will work without taping and may have a switch on them and these would be better. But this one is cheap costing 5 bucks. I think I will add this to my website, maybe someone else could use it.