Dividing plates

[Bob Korves]

Of course it doesn't have the most beautiful surface finish, but I won't tell anyone.

Very nice work! That is no trivial project, and you persevered. There was also some addition of degrees, minutes, and seconds to be done in there as well for each new hole, in advance or on the fly. It would be very easy to mess it up...

 

[Reeltor]

Thanks Chris,
You have supplied the very information I need to continue with my project.
One exception is that I have a drafting program that will divide a circle into any number of segments. Printing such circles and taping them on my index plates will hopefully help in maintaining accuracy.

Thanks guys!

Ray

I've always heard that printers are not 100% accurate in reproducing a drawing. I think this would be a better job for a plotter. Of course I could be all wet and your everyday ink jet printer could do the job. If you find that your printer isn't accurate enough you could save the drawing on a flash drive and take it to Kinko's for plotting.

Mike

 

[Downunder Bob]

My hat is off to you, Chris. Drilling that many holes on multiple bolt circles while (I assume) setting the angles by dial and doing the math for each one is not a trivial project, and very easy to make a mistake. I would likely put the last hole in the wrong place...

A worthy project, yes the possibility of mistakes, but every project has that. Isn't that part of the challenge. you 40:1 drive ratio will mean that any errors in your first plate that you make will be reduced by 40 times in any copies, and subsequent plates. So you can afford some small errors in the fist plate. Have a look at the gears on you lathe some of them will have teeth numbers that will be useful for you.

Set up a simple locating device to locate each tooth on the gears, a small drill set up in the tool post, with a center drill to spot each position on the new plate.

Once you have you first plate made you can use it to create high quality plates for regular use.