Hydarulic Dial Indicator Stand

[Sailplane Driver]

I have a cheap Chinese indicator stand. It appears to be hydraulic similar to the Mitutoyo stand. Apparently it has leaked some fluid and no longer holds firmly. It is not the bar type like the Noga clones.

I managed to pull the plunger under the nut. It took quite a bit of persuading.

Has anyone taken one of these apart or know what type of fluid it takes? My Google searches have not provided any useful info.

 

[4GSR]

Interested. Take it apart, replace all of the O-Rings with good quality name brand one's and refill with oil and try again. More than likely one of the O-Rings has been cut just enough to cause it to leak.

Ken

 

[Sailplane Driver]

How do you disassemble it? The threaded center does not want to budge and there are no flats on it to get a grip. All of the black pieces spin and do not appear to have any threads or c-clips.

 

[foleda]

I have an apparently identical arm with the same problem. I have also not found any way to (nondestructively) disassemble it. I am following this thread in hopes of learning how to disassemble and
repair mine.

 

[Wreck™Wreck]

You answered your own question, cheap indicator holder, when broken toss and buy another, also why exactly a "hydraulic" indicator holder in the first place? Please educate me as I have never seen such a thing in use.

 

[Sailplane Driver]

The question was has anyone taken one of these apart. While it was cheap, it was not crap and worked well until I left it for an extended period without tightening the knob to hold it in place. I could throw it away but then I wouldn't know how it worked. That is why I would like anyone who knows about them to explain how to disassemble it.

I can't answer "why" the manufacturer chose to make it hydraulic. I expect because they copied Mitutoyo.

 

[Wreck™Wreck]

I was curious so did a bit of web searching, it appears that Mits no longer produces them and did so only for a short time, this may explain why I have never seen one in the wild, interesting concept however. Appears a bit overly complicated for simply holding indicators.

As far as taking it apart use the age old method of "Destructive Reverse Engineering" if damage results in doing so you will still learn how it works and possibly why it failed.

You do realize that some products are not made to be disassembled and reassembled, annular ball bearings come to mind as one such common product.

 

[Sailplane Driver]

I think I fixed the problem. I did what 4gsr suggested and changed one of the two o-rings on the piston - the parts store only had one the correct size. I topped off the fluid with hydraulic jack fluid and reassembled the unit. It now works better than when it was new. The correct o-rings are 9/32" x 5/32" x 1/16" or metric 6.8 x 1.9. I've ordered an o-ring assortment from Amazon so I can replace both o-rings.

Still don't have any idea how to disassemble the arms. I found a parts diagram for a similar Mitutoyo unit and the arm assembly is shown as one part. I suspect that it may not be servicable.

 

[Sailplane Driver]

Fowler still makes a hydraulic. I think I got mine from Shars who still sells them. There are lots of hydraulics on the web if you look for them. The hydraulic clones tend to be more expensive than the Noga clones. I think the hydraulic units have a problem with temperature differentials which may be what caused mine to leak.

 

[bfd]

I rebuilt 2 of them cheap Chinese ones. to unscrew the center pivot screw I double nutted the threads and unscrewed it. replaced the o rings and filled it with air tool oil. with a syringe. has not leaked since bill