# Mill Z-axis readout



## Davyboy (Mar 28, 2009)

Hi all. I don't want to beat an overworked subject, here's my version of the Z-axis readout on a mill-drill. Maybe some of the newer guys, or even some old hands, can find inspiration and ideas to make one for their machine. Mine had no flat or square surfaces to mount anything, but a file and a spacer or two and here it goes.

Start with a HF 6" caliper. Carve it up with a grinding blade. Be careful of the heat that could damage things. Try not to damage the plastic coated copper scale in the beam. I still had to trim a little from the length of the beam and also square off the former movable jaw. These calipers from HF are real hard, carbide cutters in the mill are necessary.






Then I milled a block to hold the lower end, drill/tap for set screws to clamp it.
Make sure there is enough clearance and travel in the movable parts. A c-clamp can help hold things during a trial fit-up. This is what I ended up with. The main beam is clamped top and bottom. The movable jaw is held by springs to the threaded rod that moves with the quill. This threaded rod kind of "floats" around, so I wanted a little 'give' at the connection. And notice I still can use the nuts to stop the quill travel if needed.





Here's a view of the upper standoff to hold the beam, made from 1/8" X 1/2" CRS, and a couple of bushings parted off to the length I needed. I used the existing holes for the nameplate to add the parts I need. I drilled the 1/2-20 thread rod for a roll pin to locate the movable jaw. Wrapped a couple springs to hold it together. After it's all done, I checked it against a 1" travel indicator. all is well.





Well, that's it, hope I didn't bore you. It only took me a year to plan it and a week to do it, I'm pretty pumped over having it finished. ;D

DB


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## shred (Mar 28, 2009)

looks good. One of those is on my to-do list for my mill one of these days. It's funny because I finally made one for my lathe tailstock and was thinking "why didn't I do this sooner?".. I'm guessing it'll be the same on the mill, but I keep putting it off


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