# Indicator Holders...first Project With Milling Attachment



## TTD (Aug 12, 2015)

Now that I finally have some limited milling capabilities thanks to my new milling attachment for the 7x12, the first little project I wanted to do was to make some indicator holders…one for the vertical axis of the attachment itself as well as one for the lathe cross-slide. FYI, don’t look too close as I did make a few little boo-boo’s…

After seeing *Mark_F*’s gem of a holder for his cross-slide http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/cross-slide-indicator-holder.37113/ , I shamelessly borrowed his basic design, with a couple alterations made for my application. Raw materials were all 6061 aluminum - ¾” x ½” x 11” long flat bar, 1” round bar and a little scrap piece of ½” thick plate from the junk bin.



First, I milled a full depth .250” slot x 3.750” long c-t-c in one end of  flat bar and then a .375” wide x .250” deep slot on top of that for indicator mount to slide in. On the other end I milled a pocket .375”wide x .500”deep x 4.750” long to fit on lathe saddle. Marked & drilled two .191” thru-holes on top w/.312” x .100” deep counterbore for low profile 10-32 SHCS’s to attach bar to saddle.

Next I made the mount between indicator and flat bar. After squaring up the scrap piece, I mounted it in the 4-jaw and turned it down to .500” for 1”, then went back and turned it down to .250” for .750”. Finally threaded the end ¼” - 20 by .500”.

Lastly, I made the knob out of 1” diameter round bar x .750” long. Turned one end down to .650” x .250” long and drilled/tapped it ¼ - 20 x .600” deep. I don’t have a knurling tool yet, so to grip the knob I just cut 8 slots .050” deep with a 3/16” ball end mill (only ball-nosed end mill I currently have). Not very fancy, but it works.

Finished pieces (other than sanding out machine marks):



Next up was the holder for milling attachment. Pretty much the same idea again with a couple obvious differences. The goofy looking piece at top of pic mounts to the plate with vice (moveable) while the rest mount on the angle plate attached to cross-slide (fixed). Threaded piece made from ½” 1144 round bar.



Here they both are mounted and ready for action:





Hope you enjoy..and any criticism/suggestions are certainly welcome!


----------



## f350ca (Aug 12, 2015)

Very nice work Todd.

Greg


----------



## jeff_g1137 (Aug 12, 2015)

Hi
Yes very nice work, looks good, i would be happy with the holders.


----------



## Mark_f (Aug 12, 2015)

Excellent job well done!


----------



## Ulma Doctor (Aug 12, 2015)

A job well done indeed!


----------



## TTD (Aug 12, 2015)

Thanks guys!...I appreciate the comments more than you know!

Like I said earlier - I made a few minor mistakes in the process and no doubt probably did some operations bass-ackwards (I'll attribute that to a general lack of experience/knowledge..), but to get the "nod of approval" from the likes of you guys with your seemingly endless supply of knowledge and abilities means the world to me and gives me confidence that I'm at least on the right track.


----------



## jeff_g1137 (Aug 12, 2015)

Hi
The more you do, the more you know.
As for mistakes i have made 1 or 2 LOL  but you get there in the end, & you do it right the next time.

Jeff


----------



## brino (Aug 12, 2015)

Very nicely done! 

You should be very proud of those.....and the feeling that comes from adding greater ability/accuracy to your equipment.

I think I have a couple of those exact indicators 

-brino


----------



## rex21 (Aug 13, 2015)

Very nice work. 

How, may I ask, did you index the knob to cut the slots?


----------



## TTD (Aug 13, 2015)

rex21 said:


> Very nice work.
> 
> How, may I ask, did you index the knob to cut the slots?



Oh, crap...that was the ONE question I was hoping nobody would ask me about! Some of you more experienced fellows may read this and shake your head wondering what the heck I was thinking, but hey, welcome to my world!

I have no spin index, rotary table, dividing head or anything of the sort yet, so I had to scratch my head for a bit wondering how I was going to get the 8 slots evenly spaced. Looked around at what I had to work with (which isn't much...machines or material),spied a piece of 1/2" square aluminum bar and had a "light bulb moment". Granted, it was a dim light, but a light nonetheless!

Cut a couple inches off, chucked it in the 4-jaw, turned one end down and threaded it 1/4"-20 for the knob to screw onto tight to 1/2"sq. My thinking(?) was that I could then mill the first 4 slots (90* apart) by just flipping the square bar in milling vice, then remove knob and add whatever thickness of shims were required so that when knob was once again fastened tightly I could mill the final 4 slots...hopefully 45* from the first ones. I have quite a few shims (basically, really thin washers) anywhere from .005" - .030" for adjusting the output pressure on some 3000 psi regulators I have, just had to find the right one(s) to "index" it. IIRC, .026" was needed.

Accurate? Not too likely at all, but not bad either for what it is and who it's for.

I didn't take any pics of the original process, just mocked it up tonight to show you what I'm babbling about:





It's a crappy pic and really doesn't show anything, but here it is with shim in place:



I can be fairly clueless at times, so if anyone knows of a better, more accurate way other than this McGyver-ized setup, I'm all ears!


----------



## thomas s (Aug 13, 2015)

Well done and nice job on the knob.


----------



## jeff_g1137 (Aug 13, 2015)

Hi
Nice, if it works, it works, good thinking out of the box. 9 out of 10.


----------



## rex21 (Aug 13, 2015)

That was some great thinking! I don't have a rotary table or indexer either, thats why I was interested in how you did it.
Thank you for taking the time to mock it up for the pics. 

In my opinion there is not really a wrong way to do something if the end results are a finished functional part, and you still have all your fingers.


----------



## 2volts (Aug 14, 2015)

That's a nice job you have done there Todd.

I made similar knobs for my mini surface guage. They are only 12mm diameter so I grooved them by hand with a file.
But to get the right "spacings" -
I chucked the knob,
Turned my  compound 90 deg to move parallel to lathe axis
put a small spirit level on the chuck jaws to level a jaw facing toward me
scribed a line just feeding a tool along the edge of the knob
Then bring the next jaw around and repeat and repeat again
Then do the same with the levelled jaw facing away from me x 3
Then finally with the jaw facing vertical x 3

Then into the vice and a bit of file work.

I actually prefer grooved knobs than knurled knobs or handles, I don't like the feel of a knurled surface on my fingers.

pete


----------



## TTD (Aug 14, 2015)

Thank you for the tutorial, Pete...it's greatly appreciated!  I like your method...hands down more precise than my "eyeball" version. Will log that one away for future reference, for sure!

I'm actually thinking about possibly purchasing a small, 4" rotary table w/chuck and adapting it to fit on lathe cross-slide for small jobs such as this. Not sure yet, we'll see. At some point though (soon I hope) I have to stop sinking $$$ into my small machine and just bite the bullet and purchase the right equipment (e.g - proper milling machine, bigger lathe).

BTW, I seen your mini surface gauge...very nice job! Well done!


----------



## Round in circles (Aug 17, 2015)

That has set me a thinking ..  I have a 70 or so yrs old British Sphere cum Atlas 10 F  lathe the gear side face nearest the chuck has 60 x 6 degree locating holes in it .    Just looked in the MOLO had to check I was right ...Hmm interesting ... 1 through to 10  then 12 ,15 ,20 , 30  & 60  positions to get indicator lines from using the tool to scribe lines either across the face of the work piece &/or on a turned round surface. 
Now  I feel can make some decent knobs for the band saw doors & the belt tensioner clamp on the cheapo drill press .   Turning square bar once its been marked and drilled is starting to appeal to me , as I've got several sizes of square bar  to play with and loads of big bolts that I can anneal to soften out any hard bits in the head .

All I have to do is try and juggle the to do list to get it near the top , it's all go , is this being retired thing  .


----------



## rdhem2 (Aug 18, 2015)

I like your thought process in laying out work to get the job done.  Pretty impressive.  One point though.  Don't under size yourself with a 4" rotary table.  Get the biggest you can afford in light of machine space and money.  Once you have one, the projects and uses will grow.  I have a 12" and half the time it seems too small!

Keep 'er up buddy, you will be one to catch up fast!

Now get back to making *SWARF*!!!!!!!!


----------



## ch2co (Feb 21, 2018)

I got my mini mill which was thrown in when I picked up my used lathe.  Thought that I'd never use it, but set it up anyway
It has become one of the most used pieces of equipment in my shop. I love the little thing, although I do keep eyeing a larger
bench top mill. My lathe had a very small (and seemingly very used) mining adapter with it, and it still sits on a dusty shelf.
The milling adapper  that you show is far better than mine. Then there are those int this forum who made their own adapters.
Savarin on this forum seems to do more milling on his small lathe than he does lathe work, and he's pretty good at it. 
Tod seems to be in the same camp. Its a good way to learn both milling and lathe work at the same time.


----------



## epanzella (Mar 2, 2018)

Pretty snazzy looking milling attachment! Got any more pix of it?


----------



## Silverbullet (Mar 2, 2018)

Really a nice fully functional build . Way to do it. Others now will copy yours. YUPP nice job


----------



## TTD (Mar 3, 2018)

epanzella said:


> Pretty snazzy looking milling attachment! Got any more pix of it?


Thank you, epanzella.  I actually now use the attachment just as much, if not more, than the lathe itself (Ya, I know..."You need the lathe to use the attachment, dummy"!.....but you get my drift )

Build thread of attachment (with pics) here:
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/milling-attachment-for-my-7x12-mini-lathe.37410/


----------



## TTD (Mar 3, 2018)

Silverbullet said:


> Really a nice fully functional build . Way to do it. Others now will copy yours. YUPP nice job


Thanks, "Werewolf Ammo" (sorry, couldn't help myself...I'll refrain next time! )

Other than copying part of @mark_f's basic design, the rest of it was just kinda "designed-on-the-fly". Never really had a plan of any kind to follow...other than a (fuzzy) picture in my head of what it *should* look like once finished


----------



## Silverbullet (Mar 3, 2018)

TTD said:


> Thanks, "Werewolf Ammo" (sorry, couldn't help myself...I'll refrain next time! )
> 
> Other than copying part of @mark_f's basic design, the rest of it was just kinda "designed-on-the-fly". Never really had a plan of any kind to follow...other than a (fuzzy) picture in my head of what it *should* look like once finished


I was given or earned it really, I shot thousands of rounds of competition trap. One of the places I shot in Maryland the owner gave it to me for shooting Winchester magnum Silverbullet handicap loads. Since I had won a lot of there shoots he saw I always shot the silverbullets so every time I showed up ,,here comes Silverbullet ,,, it stuck . Then the Spielberg movie came out too. So I'm really the Silverbullet using a power wheelchair and scooter at those shoots. I've tried to get artwork with a wheelchair with flames like it's a rocket with my insignia in the spoke area.
Be cool on stickers for YouTube and my header. Werewolf slayer , YUPP will do .


----------

