# Check Out My Indexer



## gwarner (Jul 18, 2016)

Saw this baby on CL . Had one  blurry picture that said " lathe no motor $25". I figured I could throw a quick treadmill motor on it and flip it.  He was about 5 minutes away so I called and told him I was coming to get it. I emptied out the back of the pickup wondering if he would help load it. When I got there I backed up to his garage and then he came out the front door carrying this. I laughed and at first thought about leaving but as I checked it out it was built pretty well. I offered him $20 and took it home. 
   As I had it sitting on the bench wondering what the heck have I done then the idea hit me. I set it up on the mill and now it is an indexer. I changed out the pulley with what was a treadmill flywheel to use for a turning handle and a mount for my templates. I will use the circle dividing software from blocklayer.com to print out what ever steps I need.  I did have to make a few centers as it has a weird taper.
I first chucked up a small hunk of random steel and made some test cuts. It was very stable. So I  threw a piece of aluminum and knocked out a 6 sided object.  It works even  better than I hoped.  I have a 21 tooth gear I need to tackle here real soon.
Here she is sitting on my mill. The mill has a 30" table and the lathe is 35"





This shows the thickness of the bed rails. Pretty thick for a small machine.


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## JimDawson (Jul 18, 2016)

I like it!


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## LARRY BOYD (Sep 13, 2016)

Looks like you made a good buy.I can see a lot of uses I could find for it.


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## kd4gij (Sep 15, 2016)

I would love to check it out.  Just pack it up and send it to me. 

I have been looking for a deal like that around here with no luck so far.


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## rgray (Sep 16, 2016)

Nice!!! Can't ever have to many "between centers fixtures" That will come in handy for many things I think.
If you want to use it as a dividing indexer check out http://www.liming.org/millindex/   I made an electronic index from his plan and like it so much I will probably sell my dividing head.
Mine is a  liming/harold hall version.


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## aametalmaster (Sep 17, 2016)

I just bought a small wood lathe at a flea market. Was also going to put a motor on it until I thought it would make a nice indexer...Bob


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## gwarner (Sep 18, 2016)

rgray, that is a great idea. I have been playing with steppers lately (cnc and delta build). Will certainly provide more accuracy than I will ever need. I may add that to my project list.  
I assume you are just using the steppers for positioning and have an additional way of locking the spindle. 
 Bob, that is just what this one was. I have only used it a few times so far but each time it worked great.


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## rgray (Sep 18, 2016)

gwarner said:


> I assume you are just using the steppers for positioning and have an additional way of locking the spindle.



Yes my homemade indexer is copied from the book "Milling a complete course" By Harold Hall. It has a lock on it. Just need to be sure to never forget to unlock it before advancing.
 I'm using a window motor worm gear set and the large gear is plastic 57:1 gear ratio. 
The stepper Limming uses is way larger than I think I would need and I think it would have no trouble stripping the plastic gear if I forgot to unlock before advancing.


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## revwarguy (Sep 25, 2016)

rgray said:


> The stepper Limming uses is way larger than I think I would need and I think it would have no trouble stripping the plastic gear if I forgot to unlock before advancing.



The reason I use such a larger stepper is to obivate the need for a brake.  Steppers generate full torque while at rest -  I know I have cut aluminum and brass with just the stepper holding the workpiece, and so far it has held, although I made sure I had a very low DOC.

Love your unit, especially the packaging, rgray!  Looks very robust.


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## rgray (Sep 26, 2016)

revwarguy said:


> The reason I use such a larger stepper is to obivate the need for a brake. Steppers generate full torque while at rest - I know I have cut aluminum and brass with just the stepper holding the workpiece, and so far it has held, although I made sure I had a very low DOC



That makes perfect sense. Now I just need to step up to a brass gear. Been eyeing the anti backlash worm and spur gears from sdp/si kind of expensive but I think they would work well.
With my 57:1 gear reduction maybe I'm fine and maybe the plastic is strong enough.

Got a 3D printer 6 months ago and made a nice arduino box from files from thingverse  to clean up the housing and mounting of that part.


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