Optical chucks

Back in the dark ages (1964) i was into my apprenticeship, at this time i was in the toolroom. It was just a small toolroom with myself and 'arry'.

Anyway we had a bench pillar drill that had an optical chuck, you viewed through an optic and could see down to your work piece and see you scratch lines from the vertical vernier. You line the cross hairs up and used a centre drill for quite accurate drilling.

No a patch on todays CNC machining i know.

My question is are these still made, are there IR deices that do the same. I have looked but cannot find anything even resembling what i am looking for. I don't even know if Optical chuck is the right name for them.

I need to drill eight holes fairly accuratley, hoping someone can help me or maybe just tell me i am completley mad.

Edited By hawkeyefxr on 30/01/2017 13:53:48

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If they do still exist I would imagine a decent quality one would be many times the price of a DRO system.

Nick

Something similar was discussed back in 2015:

**LINK**

Regards

David

What do you mean by "fairly accurate"? Define the problem and layout.

Perhaps something like this **LINK**

Rod

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A 'Digital Read-Out' system.

But having been now seen the link kindly provided by Rod it may seem that I was wrong about the costing.

But you would of course then have to make the optical device linked. And it's accuracy for ever more would depend on how accurate you made it in the first place.

Nick

This web article describes a home build centre finder using the inards of a cheap web cam, might be of use. Issue 121 of MEW

John

Edited By Journeyman on 30/01/2017 16:52:38

Alan - That would be an optical centre punch. I have one made by Mr.Dankroy and very good it is to. I use all the while.

Rik

The very first issue of MEW carried just such a device - home brewed, of course and very simple - it must have been 'cos I made one and it worked! It may still be lurking in the chaotic shambles of my workshop but more likely went to the skip with the other debris from the 'surge'. I also had a much rarer beast - a drill chuck on a 2MT taper which had a built-in centring viewer!! Clever idea but a bit short on practicality, as you had to place your eye against the chuck body to view the centre! If not available elsewhere, I may be able to send you a copy of the MEW article, assuming Neil and his paymasters don't object.

rgds

Bill

Tell you what, send me a scan of it and I'll put it up on the website

Stefan Gotteswinter shared an excellent video on YouTube about the design and construction of an optical microscope. Like all his videos it's very interesting and well worth watching.
Centering Microscope

Hawkeye you are not mad they were in regular use in the 60's bothe before and after that time they were called Optical Centre finders as far as I recall, used them many times.
Both Roderik and Steve M are spot on but the ones I used the eye piece was at 45 deg so easier to view than the 90 deg ones shown but you would need a prism for this. Never seen a S/H one for sale but guess they must come up now and then.

Neil - scans sent as 4 .jpgs - hope they are OK

John F - The above item incorporates a home made prism and could, therefore be to any angle required.

rgds

Bill

Edited By Cornish Jack on 30/01/2017 23:44:47

This is a very good place to buy prisms: **LINK**

http://surplusshed.com/search.cfm

Just put prism in the search box and have a browse.

Postal charges a very honest too [although USPS costs increased quite dramatically last year]

MichaelG.

Optical finder article now here:

www.model-engineer.co.uk/OpticalFinder

Thanks Bill.

Neil

I use a laser edge / centre finder.

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2604

Reg

I built one of these three or four years ago. It's mounted on a 2MT arbour and the fiddly bit was getting the camera lined up with the axis of the mill. In conjunction with the DRO it is one of the most useful things in my workshop for edge finding, centring and measuring etc.

Even though the software is still available on the site, the chap that wrote the software is no longer supporting it.

Presumably an alternative would be the camera plug in on the Mach 3 software?