Make Your Own Thread Dial

Boot

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Aug 4, 2012
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I did this with plans from an article in Popular Science from November 1940 on page 184. Check it out in Popular Science Archives. I used my lathe with the little fixture shown in the article. I made a mandrel to
hold a small saw cutter and turned it with my chuck and held by a live center in the tail stock. I used a 32 t gear from my change gears to locate each tooth. It works like a dream. My lead screw is 8 t / inch. I failed to angle the fixture . I cut it straight on and it works great.
 
I can take some pictures of the thread dial and of the fixture I used to cut gear. I'll do that tomorrow afternoon when I get done with my shopping.
 
I'll be watching for those pictures...
I'll finally have some down time over the holidays, day job shuts down for a week and a half, night job should finally be wrapped up by Christmas, I'll hopefully have some time to play in the shop. My brain has been teeming with ideas.
 
Hello Hukshawn. I'm going to try to post a few picture of my fixtures, and finished part. I hope you can follow what I have posted. The picture is of a small tool makers vice that I bolted to my cross slide. Also the mandrel and 1/16 " cutter that went into my 3 jaw chuck and steadied by my live center in tailstock. I should of angled the vice and fixture ,but I didn't. I cut it straight on and it works fine. The finished part is a little crude on the back side. I had to grind lower part for clearance. You can see the 32 tooth gear that I used as a pattern for my gear. The plans in the P. S. magazine are most helpful. As you can see I didn't use their method of cutting the gear with a modified tap. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Boot.
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Sorry about the delay in posting the pictures. The first camera I used made the photos blurry . I don't know why. I have a degree in commercial art photography I should know. I learned something the other day about cutting threads. The lines between the numbers on the dial can be used to cut double thread leads. I cut mine using a pin or dog to rotate part 180 to start multiple start threads in a faceplate. We learn something new every day. Good luck to anyone using this plan for a thread dial. I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone has on making it. I'm glad LucknowKen found the magazine article. Thanks.
 
Man. That magazine had everything! I wish today's magazines had so much stuff... lol even in 1940, you could still train to make thousands working from home....

I like the vise dividing head design. Hopefully I can find the time to try all these out.
 
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