Dial Indicator Question

Jeffrey Brown · Feb 18, 2020

Greetings All,
I recently bought a Mitutoyo 2416S 0-1 inch dial indicator. I've noticed that the .001 dial and the .10 dial do not track very closely. That is , after I rotate the .001 dial through a revolution the .10 dial is indicating a little less than .10 . I have to clock the main dial about another .030 to get the .10 dial to the proper grad mark. Is this normal?

tcarrington · Feb 18, 2020

Short answer, yes. They are usually setup so as to allow the zero to be set away from the hard stop limit. That should get the 0.001 and 0.100 to better align. Also not unique to Mit. Most dial indicators are setup or assembled this way.

Cadillac · Feb 18, 2020

Check it against another known measurement. With lathe or mill run the indicator to touch a part. Zero it and your dials and move a amount and check readings.
More accurate use gauge blocks on a surface plate with the indicator on a height gauge.

pontiac428 · Feb 18, 2020

I'd say it's normal. The two scales (ten thou and thousandths) are different in that the ten thou scale is locked to the plunger and the thousandths scale is resettable at any point independent of where the plunger is. This isn't a problem, since we usually don't start a dial indicator at zero, rather we touch the work and set the zero. The ten thou scale is mostly there to tell you you've gone a full rotation.

cbellanca · Feb 18, 2020

Is the 0.01 dial on zero before you start? Probably not. You must load the indicator to the 0.01 zero. Rotate the face dial until the zero lines up with the 0.001 zero.
Then load the indicator stem 0.100 . your 0.01 pointer should matchup with the 0.01. The 0.01 dial is not normally used for measurment only to show a nominal rotation

higgite · Feb 18, 2020

Further to tcarrington’s explanation in post #2, the DIs that I have all came calibrated such that when the main pointer points straight up in line with the indicator shaft, the revolution counter is zeroed. That is, anytime the rotatable dial face is zeroed to the pointer at any point other than the “top” of the dial, the rev counter will not be pointing at a whole number on its small dial. What you describe for your indicator sounds normal.

Tom

Jeffrey Brown · Feb 19, 2020

Thank you everyone for taking time to post. I'm convinced ( and relieved ) I don't have to send this thing back!

higgite · Feb 20, 2020

What thing? What did I miss?

Tom

Edit: Ah, so now I see what I missed. My question was regarding what is now post #7 in this thread, but was originally post #1 in another thread before that thread was merged with this one. Or something like that.

middle.road · Feb 20, 2020

higgite said:
What thing? What did I miss?

Tom