Optical Chucks

In the mid 60s i was in my apprenticeship, about this time i was in the toolroom, it was like heaven, well it was to me.

We had a drill setup with an optical chuck, basically you peered through and you saw crosshairs through the centre of the chuck to your workpiece where you had scribed a cross. You then used a centre drill and got you hole where you wanted it.

Present day, i am looking for something like this now though i suspect the type i used will be laughed at now. I was wondering if there was a present day device, I am not working in thou's but would like to be.

Is there something that can be clamped in the chuck jaws that maybe shines a crosshair onto the workpiece.

I did find a post here from 2017 but that maybe redundant now. Was hoping to do away with the centre punch lol.

Something like this?

UcAAOSwKk5cW8ga">https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brand-New-High-Quality-Optical-Punch-Set/333160596743?hash=item4d91eb4507:gUcAAOSwKk5cW8ga

Hemingway do a kit for a centering microscope which would do what you want, though it takes a good deal of vertical space. Various people have described versions based on webcams also.

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It’s generally better to keep the cross-hairs in the eyepiece [or the camera] as any projected lines will have significant width.

As a slight digression: Have a look at the way Hauser [and others] approach this ... the microscope is interchangeable with the spindle. ... Not suggesting that you do this on your drill, but it’s worth drooling over !!

MichaelG.

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Here's a Hauser M1 in action:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AhUoZ1mMwfQ

and more detail of a microscope:

https://youtu.be/xHOQ6L8c6p8

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 30/05/2020 15:47:57

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 30/05/2020 16:03:59

Can't put my hand on it at the moment (It's in a box!!) but I got one of these 20 years or more ago. I think it was made by Moore and Wright and basically was a 1/2" drill chuck on a No 2 morse arbor with the sort of optical system used in a centring microscope - look through the viewer on the side and you got a cross hairs image of whatever was directly below the chuck. I'd never seen one so I took it along to the Model Engineering club (Stockport) and one of the members who was a long time engineer identified it a a jig-borer chuck so you could centre on a punch mark or graduation before drilling. Back then he thought it was around £600 worth so goodness knows what one would cost now. If I can dig it out, I'll post a photo.

Sandy

Thanks for those quick replies, I have seen the Wixey system **LINK**. is more in my price range.

Alexander, the one you describe sounds very much like we had. The fella in charge of me at the time said it cost a lot of money. As i earned around £10.00 per week makes £600 like a mountain lol.

I make the occasional jig or fixture and getting accurate hole location hard when to take into account my eyes are not what they were, bending over lining things up and all the other things being worn out on me lol, and my drill is in the same condition lol.

If you fancy a project, MEW issue 98 pg 44 Simple Prismatic Centre Finding Microscope

Adrian

And 28 minutes and 48 seconds of lockdown-consuming time here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df8MnaDCIHo

John

Many years ago I bought an inexpensive microscope from LiDL intending to convert it into a centring microscope. All the basic optics there including a main eyepiece tube laid back at a suitable angle with a deflection mirror. As I recall it the body was in two parts with a horizontal joint below the deflection mirror between the eyepiece end and objective end.

Plan was to re-work the objective end to remove the turret and fit a single cheap, lower power, objective lens of the type used in engineers microscopes. In the end I just got cleverer at exploiting the DRO and centre finders so never had the practical need. If I ever do have that need the project will get done. Fast.

Pretty sure they come up most years for £30 (ish). Must be a metric boatload of affordable similar, if not merely the same with a different badge, on E-Bay, Amazon, Bangood, local free papers et al.

Clive

When I worked we used a 3R centering microscope it fitted into a collet or chuck.

David

There was also an article about that kit in MEW-106 (May-June 2005).

I found one on ebay for 60 quid, the guy knew it was some kind of optical gadget but not how it worked. Beautiful piece if kit, very useful in the tailstock for centering in the 4 jaw.

Then blow me if I didnt trip over two more in the local tool dealers. I bought one of them for 60 quid as they didnt know what it was either. I left the other for some other lucky finder to drop on. As far as I know it might still be there waiting.

I will post a photo later.

Mick

The optical plumb that is fitted to the older surveying theodolites would be a good start for an optical cenering device.

They are fitted to the tribrach and can be unscrewed as a seperate part, these items often appear in surveying kit auctions and go for low money. I have made one from the optical plumb I had spare.