What do you use for an indicol on PM mills with quill DRO?

[WobblyHand]

I have a spindle indicator holder for my PM25. Since there is no spindle lock on a PM25, there is nothing to prevent slight movement when sweeping a surface. Also I don't like tearing down what is currently in the spindle to take a measurement. I'd like something more like an Indicol. Since there is a DRO on the quill, the body is much wider in diameter than normal. I measure it to be about 78mm or so. This is a little wider than 3" which puts it in the more expensive class of Indicols. What solutions have you come up with? I have a LED angel eye light magnetically installed on the bottom of the spindle, so I don't want to lose that. Definitely need the light. Any good solutions?

After a couple of hours, feel a little silly. My spindle light is covering the area where an Indicol could fit. Think the answer is probably a redo of the spindle light, or a serious modification. However, I am interested to know if those of you with quill DROs and spindle lights solve the problem. Can you have good lighting and room for an Indicol? If so, how did you do it?

 

[Toolmaker51]

Well, not to chide you, but have any idea, both now and before, how many mills exist with out a spindle light at all?
For starters, just lower the quill; the Indicol clamps on spindle nose, a spindle brake is immaterial.

 

[7milesup]

Well, not to chide you but do you realize that just because millions of mills don't have a spindle light, mine shouldn't?

 

[WobblyHand]

Yes, I misunderstood how an Indicol worked. I rather like my spindle light, one reason is I made it on my lathe and had to grind my own tooling to make it. As a beginner, the spindle light stretched my abilities just making it. It was one of my first things I made on my lathe. In my basement shop, the lighting is poor under the spindle. It's kind of irrelevant to me the number of mills without one - I know I need one to see what I am doing.

Nonetheless, it seems an Indicol would interfere with my existing spindle light, so I need to either relocate the light, or do without an Indicol. Since I think an Indicol would be useful, it sounds like I need to design another spindle light that won't interfere with an Indicol. I'm amazed I got as much use out of this spindle light as I did since it was originally designed for my drill press, not my mill. It was just dumb luck that it fit on the mill.

 

[Toolmaker51]

No problem, a spindle light that encircles the quill gets knocked off upon retraction, on the housing, they never have the right focal distance. The only workable solution I've seen is a temporary clamp affixed to quill when needed.

 

[Chewy]

Wobbyhand, you will have the same deflection problem with what ever brand of Indicol you buy. There is a simple no cost fix to your problem. All it takes is a piece of wood and a rubber band. I have a pair of $16 Indicols from Ebay (setup differently) that will sweep anything I want to 1 tenth with no deflection problems at all. You will need to use a DTI, not an indicator. I just got $16 DTI from Amazon to rig for the rotary table and it also works well with the indicol setup. Unlike a Mic, I don't see where spending a hundred dollars vs twenty to thirty makes a difference in this case.
I brought this same problem up a few years ago with the PM 30 and sorted got scoffed at. I Finally worked out a solution that I use every day. I also just added some studs to the Preist quill stop for even faster dialing in. I am adding a mill light to the ring just below the quill stop plate. I am disappointed in the quill stop. It really works better on the PM 25 than the 30.
PM me and I will send you some pictures. If it works for you than tell everyone. If not than tell them I was way off base.

 

[darkzero]

I have a spindle light (DIY) & can still use an Indicol style holder although I pretty much never use it. I also have a quill DRO (also DIY) that I mounted to the depth stop bracket that mounts to the base of the quill. My mill didn't originally come with the quill bracket though since I have a power down feed model. The newer PMs that come with quill DROs also mounts the same way. But indicols mount to the spindle & not the base of the quill. I have a PM45 though.

Is your spindle light DIY or an off the shelf unit? Before I made my own I bought a Tormach spindle light, that thing was bulky, not very bright, & I was not happy with it so I returned it. It also wouldn't have allowed me to use an Indicol style holder if I ever wanted to.

Edit: whoops, missed what you said in post #4

 

[WobblyHand]

I have at most 24 mm of spindle to grab onto. That would be great if my DIY light wasn't so thick. As it is today, there's about 4 mm stick out of the spindle for me to get a wrench on it. If the wrench isn't level, I can't tighten the spindle.

All pictures are with the quill up. So, if I could get wider angel eye rings, there is nothing to prevent me from attaching the ring to the wide 78mm body. Yeah, the light is pretty crude, but it works. I made it before I got the mill. Nowadays, I'd have the magnets in an arc, rather than a straight line. And I'd use a lot less epoxy!

Had a thread on the spindle light. My LED spindle light Have to say, I have learned an awful lot since that time.