# Lower gear on thread dial indicator



## joebiplane (Oct 13, 2014)

Dear Guru's

I have a heavy 10 with no thread dial indicator.  I want to build one per the recent one built by a member BUT  I need to know what the gear needs to be   as I never saw one.

I have a SBL 9" work shop with an indicator and I wonder if they use the same gear for both machines ?
I have tried to see if the 9"  unit would work on the heavy 10  but it wont due to different mounting styles    but both lead screws seem, TO ME,  to be the same thread so I am assuming the 9" gear would work as far as thread goes.   just the mthod of presenting the gear to the heavy screw needs to be designed.

Am I on the right track ???  or do I need a specific gear for the heavy 10  that differs from that on a 9" workshop?

Thanks
joe


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## GK1918 (Oct 14, 2014)

Pretty sure Joe its 32 teeth and quite fat so it will not get stuck in the screw keyway.  For some reason SB dials are way overpriced, I bought a 10 dollar Atlas dial on ebay. The atlas is
smaller but does work.  And only has four divisions that I can't trust so I mark it with a sharpie so It has to be engauged only on that sharpie mark.  Due to its smaller driven gear It spins
faster but works fine even with hundreds of miles of threading on it.  And then on another lathe I made a gear out of plastic or pvc or something used an intake valve for the dial and stamped
it.  It works fine.  I put prussien blue on the screw transferred that to brown bag paper transferred that to the plastic blank and cut the teeth on a shaper (rainy Sunday day stuff)

sam


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## Mark_f (Oct 16, 2014)

I made mine for my 9 inch with a 32 tooth plastic gear that I bought on ebay and got 5 gears for $5 including shipping. The gear was the right diameter. I have a thread about it in members projects. It is an easy build. a couple hours.

Mark


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