Clausing 4800 X-axis Travel Measurement?

[Enderw88]

I picked up my Clausing 4803 yesterday and noticed something. There are no micrometer marks anywhere for the Z-axis travel. Am I missing something? I can always set up an indicator, but if I need to do a long accurate traverse between features that could get hairy.

Reason number 2 to get a DRO!

 

[wa5cab]

I don't think that I have ever seen a lathe with a graduated traverse handwheel. There are too many tolerance buildup issues. You could certainly put a dial on the handwheel. Unlike lead screws, racks are not generally guaranteed to any particular accuracy. You could mount a travel-dial in place of the threading dial when you weren't actually cutting threads. That would be much more accurate.

 

[Enderw88]

Thank you. I have been using a Sherline lathe which controls Z with a leadscrew with graduated handwheel.


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[wa5cab]

OK. That's typically found on mini-lathes and the least expensive small lathes, like the AA built Dunlop's. It was less expensive than adding the rack and pinion rapid traverse, given that the lead screw mechanism was already there, and not too inconvenient since the bed was quite short