Thread: Dial Indicator Set up for Hercus Mill

As they say necessity is the mother of invention great work. I am thinking about something similar for my mill as there are no graduated collars on the machine .

Nice job and will be a handy feature for your projects.
It's a shame the DRO's are not a bit cheaper these days.

Dave

Bruce,

Quality work as usual.

Do you have a way of ensuring that the indicator is aligned parallel to the axis travel you are measuring? Lug back indicators can be a bit of a pain to line up.

How do you find using the coolant bucket? My No.O has the original coolant pump and tank in the base. I have never had it running because the pump is three phase.

Are you certain you didn't repaint your mill to match your Sax Altman trousers. More of the original green is showing.

BT

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

Bruce,

Quality work as usual.

Do you have a way of ensuring that the indicator is aligned parallel to the axis travel you are measuring? Lug back indicators can be a bit of a pain to line up.

How do you find using the coolant bucket? My No.O has the original coolant pump and tank in the base. I have never had it running because the pump is three phase.

Are you certain you didn't repaint your mill to match your Sax Altman trousers. More of the original green is showing.

BT

Bob
You always give me a good laugh.
I really dont like the colour of my mill, but like me, its got a lot of chips & defects in its exterior coat. Perhaps I could paint it "Vista Green" but then again that would destroy its "Patina". I must say it does match the colour of the trousers I wear, & have not noticed that before What do you think? Should it be painted or left as is ?
I think I know what your answer will be
The one thou Dial Indicator will be a big improvement even if its not dead in line, compared to the battle I have had in the past, with the metric dials on the mill
regards
Bruce
ps Notice the photos are starting to flow through.

I have had one of these Universal Wigglers most of my life, & really never used it.
After reading a section in the Harold Halls book, that I bought from Bryan at the last Scrapethon,outlining the use of this for aligning the workpiece edge. to the axis of the milling machine, I just gave it a test run.
Anyway the results were excellent. The wiggler is held in a chuck or collet in the milling head.
Its then made to run a bit off centre.
Then the cross slide is moved so that the workpiece edge makes contact with the offcentre ball.
The cross slide is then moved until the .250" dia ball on the end of the wiggler is running concentric.
When that happens the workpiece edge is exactly .125" off centre of the mill axis.
A simple calculation, & cross slide movement follows to bring the mill axis on centre, & in alignment to the workpiece edge.
To confirm its accuracy, I had the Dial indicator set up & sure enough it was repeatable in its accuracy.
Just interested to know if any one uses the Wiggler, in this age of digital readouts,(which I dont have)
regards
Bruce

That's pretty much how we do it at work put the edge finder in the mill move it till the edge finder runs concentric, then zero the readout bring it in 5 mm half the diameter of the edge finder and you on the edge of the job. The manufacture claims it's accurate to a tenth

I use mine all the time. I do have an electronic one as well, but I usually go to the wiggler because it's quicker than getting a collet out. I even have a little bracket on my mill head that holds the wiggler as it's used that often.

Dave
Edit,
I forgot to say it goes hand in hand with the DRO as you just input the number into it.

Hey Bruce, Is the flow going to include indexer photos?

I bought a second hand Starrett wiggler set not that long after picking up my No. O. I have never used the edge finding ball attachment but have always used the pointy centre indicating attachment. That and a jeweller's loupe has served me well enough. Great on the drill also.


BT

Andre
I wanted to check the accuracy & repeatability of the Wiggler.
Just finished running a series of about ten trials using a 1/10 thou Dial Indicator to check the accuracy on each setting.
The results were better than I expected, I found the Wiggler was achieving result to about 2/10ths of a thou each time.
I think it would be fair to say this tool has an accuracy of 1/2 a thou, for practical purposes.
regards
Bruce

1/2 thou that's about right that's also what the old Guy at work said when I asked if it was really accurate to 2 microns or a tenth

I have a few tools for picking up edges and centers but the wiggler is the one I use most. Its biggest plus is it doesnt matter how much run out it has, so you can use it in a drill chuck.

Originally Posted by Dave J

I forgot to say it goes hand in hand with the DRO as you just input the number into it.

I really should read up how to do that. I just wind the axis 0.125" and rezero. Though I guess my way removes the chance of entering 0.0125" in the wrong direction.

Stuart

p.s. most of the sets I have seen also have a 0.100" disc.... not really sure why they didnt use a ball? Maybe its just to allow you to pick up on shallow steps?