Graduated dials

[iron man]

A friend of mine wanted direct read dials for his lathe he asked for help so I would need to make a dial with 200 spaces. I like to leave everything in the lathe till everything is done so using my indexing head was out of the question. So I went and purchased a cheap 10 inch plywood blade and made a spring loaded holder that would click off each tooth. The little brass pointer helped me keep track of each long line needed by marking every tenth tooth with a magic marker.

 

[chuckorlando]

Thats pretty slick thinking man. Awesome

 

[iron man]

I made this post that fit snug in the spindle shaft and tightens up like a bicycle handlebar.

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After I cut all the lines in the dial and filed it smooth I made this quick mount for the number stamps. One slot is a 1/4" wide for single digits the other is 5/16 wide for double digits.

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After setting the distance back you just hold the punch to one side for one digit.

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And then hold it to the other side for the second digit. I used a brass jewelers hammer with only slight force.

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I think the plated punch set was only $21 they worked real nice.

 

[JimDawson]

What a beautiful job, and great thinking on the saw blade.

 

[iron man]

I have to file it a little to remove any distortion from the punch but it turned out really nice for the first try I think I will make some more!

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Tryed to get a picture without the glare sorry. Once I got the lines centered with the milled slots on the jig I used the saw blade to degree off each 10 spaces for the numbers that way I did not have to re-align each time it went quick. I will have to figure out a good methode to paint the lines and clean up the dial hope this helps someone thanks for lookin.. Ray

 

[bvd1940]

A friend of mine wanted direct read dials for his lathe he asked for help so I would need to make a dial with 200 spaces. I like to leave everything in the lathe till everything is done so using my indexing head was out of the question. So I went and purchased a cheap 10 inch plywood blade and made a spring loaded holder that would click off each tooth. The little brass pointer helped me keep track of each long line needed by marking every tenth tooth with a magic marker.

Thats thinking outside the box, nice job:man:

 

[iron man]

Thanks I first went through a pile of gears I have looking for one with 200 teeth when that failed I was rummaging through some stuff and found an old chop saw blade it did not have enough spaces so I went to the local Menards and found one for $11. I think I will keep it just for this. Ray

 

[toolman49]

G'Day Ray,
Back in the the olden days when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I had a full head of hair, I briefly worked in an engraving shop, the practice they used to fill lettering was to cut strips of 1/8" thick card stock about 1" x 2" and apply a bead of lacquer to the edge with an artists brush, this was used to squeegee the lacquer into the engraving about 10 characters at a time, after letting it dry for about 5 minutes the excess was removed with a soft cotton cloth stretched over another piece of card stock lightly dampened with lacquer thinners. After a few months of headaches and nausea from the lacquer thinners I decided that this was not a viable career option.
Ventilation ??? we don't need no stinking ventilation, was the attitude at the time.
Regards,
Martin

 

[Hawkeye]

Nice work, Ironman. I like that kind of thinking.

 

[tertiaryjim]

Thats a nice looking dial.

When I made one I cut the lines extra deep and sloped paint in them.
After the paint was dry I turned the dial on the lathe and removed a couple thousanths so it looked clean with sharp dark lines.