I have a 11" south Bend lathe that I inherited from my dad. The lathe had the small 100 graduation dials on it for the cross slide and the compound. I never liked the small dials and as my eyes get older it is getting harder and harder to make those final .001 cuts so I decided to convert the dials to larger 200 graduation dials so that they would be easier to read and that I could get to diameter readings instead of radial readings. I read the posts on the forum about people making their own dials and I felt it to be a big task to scribe 200 lines on the dial. I started digging and found that you could buy 200 graduation dials from a Bridgeport for around $35.00. I bought a dial and converted it to my lathe. I made an adapter to go on the cross slide screw to adapt the lager dial. I then made a large disc to go on the back stationary part of the cross slide for the witness mark. I did not plan far enough ahead and when I went to put the cross slide handle back on the lathe the handle hit the dial. I needed to machine a little off the back of the handle to get the handle to clear the dial screw. If I had to do it over I would machine some off the back of the dial to push it back away from the handle.
I machined a few test parts and I really like the larger dials. below are some photos.
I machined a few test parts and I really like the larger dials. below are some photos.
