Lathe Carriage Position Indicator

[petertha]

Hopefully your design considered the typical 2" dials are kind of longish - both the stem & also extension tube on the other side. Mine was getting too close to the turn handle it was kind of awkward but your setup might be different. That's why I went with a vernier style. Longer range to match the quill extent, can zero set at any reference, bit more compact on the tailstock, inch/metric reading, yada-yada. Another way to skin the cat.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

My 2" stroke dial indicator came in today. It's a beautiful thing, but it certainly is a long billed sucker!!! It will work okay up on top of the tailstock with no clearance problems, but I don't think it is going to work very well down on the ways to indicate carriage travel. It's just too darn long. When the cap end is tight against the headstock, the probe end is out so far that I won't be able to use it very comfortably to do work up close to the chuck. I think I will keep it as a "tailstock only" measuring device, and spend some of the Rupnow fortune on a 2 axis DRO set-up for the lathe. I bought my glass scale DRO set up for my milling machine from Dro-Pros, and have been very happy with it. They now offer magnetic scale kits for lathes that can be cut to length and are "fairly" easy to mount. It looks like by the time I figure in price, shipping, tax, and the exchange rate on American/Canadian dollars, this is going to cost about $1200 Canadian.

 

[tornitore45]

When I use my 2" travel indicator I place it on the right. Plenty of space there.

 

[petertha]

Screen grab of Youtube pictorial showing a neat way to use a standard/small dial indicator with extending bar.

 

[purpleknif]

You're still better off setting your indicator to a zero with gage blocks and coming in to that same zero. Over longer distances sine error can add up. No possibility of that with gage blocks. I think I paid $75 for my set and I couldn't live without
them.

 

[tornitore45]

Cosine error of a very detectable 2 degrees angle is 0.6 thousand per inch.
Whether that is significant is up to you, for what I do is nothing.
For a 5 degrees off the error is 3.8 thousands per inch.