What is it? #2

[Sam Johnson]

Perhaps someone can tell me what this item is. It's another one of the items in grandad's collections of tools, stored with the Atlas10D and the Craftsman drill press. Both have milling attachments.

The "wiggler" is pointy and spring loaded to push outward, but retracts into the body. It's sort of like a tap follower. The shaft, about 1/8" diameter, slides out the back end and is retained by a cotter pin. The rear hole is close to 1/8" diameter, but the main axial hole (3/8") is much larger than the 0.331" diameter on the wiggler shaft (which retains the central spring). As a result, the sharp tip wiggles up/down, left/right by about 1/4".
I thought about a tap follower or a wiggler for aligning a center punch mark on the rotating work with the tailstock axis? Neither seems right.

There is a second spring (about 1/4" diameter) stuck into an off axis hole parallel to the main axis. It's much stronger than the first spring, and may be broken off. It won't come out of its hole.

The pointy end is to the right. The left end with the cotter pin is squared off and the shaft moves about 1/2" into the piece.

Photo 1 is assembled, 2 disassembled.

Any thoughts on this item? Thanks for any help, (and thanks for the comments on item 1 in my previous post.)

 

[benmychree]

Wigglers are used to pick up center punch marks, not in the lathe, but in a mill.; there is another somewhat similar device for lathe work, it is a shaft, center drilled on one end that fits inside a larger cylindrical part with a center point on the other end, with a spring inside, the point is inserted in the punch mark, and the center drilled shaft is supported by the tailstock center and the spring compressed by putting tension via the tailstock, a dial indicator is set to ride near the center point and the lathe spindle rotated to tell if the part is on center.
Mill wigglers ar generally made so that the sharp point can be inserted backwards in the body so as to take up less space and protect the point and the owner from damage, a mill wiggler usually comes with accessory items for edge finding and holding small test indicators.

 

[Sam Johnson]

The lathe has a milling attachment as does the drill press. I don't know what this thing is, but I had to call it something. Does it look usable on a lathe on a milling attachment on a lathe or on a drill press with milling table for anything useful?

If I understand your comments, it could possibly be used with a dial indicator on the lathe to check that a centerpunched mark was on axis. It concerned me that the far (dull) end of the pin was so loosely held that a dial could never verify that the punch mark was on axis. Plus, what would the second spring do? Last, I couldn't see how to hold the item in the tailstock.

 

[benmychree]

No, I was describing another device specifically used on the lathe, but yes, the wiggler could be used on a drill press with a X-Y table for locating to a punch mark.

 

[Sam Johnson]

I thought a bit more about how this might be used on a lathe. I could chuck it in the tailstock (although it's not designed to make that easy) and then using a 4 jaw I could move a workpiece until a centerpunched mark aligns on the axis as determined by a DI on the sharp point showing no movement.

It took me a while to realize that as long as the sharp point is in a centerpunched mark that is on the axis, it doesn't matter if the far (dull) end of that pin is off axis. The pin won't move as the workpiece rotates around the on-axis centered mark.

The few times I've needed to do this previously, I just used a sharp center in the tailstock and aligned it with the mark using the 4 jaws. I suppose a DI would be more accurate, though.

None of that tells me what this item actually is, though. That 2nd spring, and the lack of any easy way to chuck it convince me that was not the intended way for it to be used....

Thanks for your comments.

 

[Parlo]

Wigglers are used to pick up center punch marks, not in the lathe, but in a mill.; there is another somewhat similar device for lathe work, it is a shaft, center drilled on one end that fits inside a larger cylindrical part with a center point on the other end, with a spring inside, the point is inserted in the punch mark, and the center drilled shaft is supported by the tailstock center and the spring compressed by putting tension via the tailstock, a dial indicator is set to ride near the center point and the lathe spindle rotated to tell if the part is on center.
Mill wigglers ar generally made so that the sharp point can be inserted backwards in the body so as to take up less space and protect the point and the owner from damage, a mill wiggler usually comes with accessory items for edge finding and holding small test indicators.

The ones used on a lathe are called wiggle bars in the UK.