Roger Vanes indexing unit from M.E.W.

Hi

I just finished making this dividing unit and thought I would share.

I've made a couple of mods as you will see.

heres the complete thing,

the selector discs, one with 24 holes, one with 20.

on the original there was one disc and it was held between two locking collars and a keyway was used to locate the disc, also, the collars screwed together locked the spindle in position.

I wanted to be able to change discs easily so I dispensed with the keyway , fitted a grubscrew into the first, larger collar,

I also fitted a pin into the side of the first collar and drilled a locating hole in the discs.

Now I can set the backlash with the first collar, lock it there with the grubscrew and change discs easily.

Cheers

Roy.

Nice job, Roy

That looks very tidy.

... I may follow your excellent example.

MichaelG.

Thanks.

It was quite an interesting exercise in machining.

the spindle with all the threading including female threads for the backstop and collars and of course the collet taper.

I think he tapped his backstop thread but who's got a tap that big?

line boring the body was fun too, I've never done that before and my home made boring bar and cutting tool worked quite nicely.

Cheers

Roy.

Edited By wheeltapper on 22/04/2013 14:52:48

Edited By wheeltapper on 22/04/2013 14:53:59

Hi Roy

Looks like a nice job - very pleased to see that you've made it.

I like the modifications - great idea if you want to change index wheels and easier to adjust to eliminate the backlash.

Replacing the keyway with the grubscrew makes the whole manufacturing process easier and quicker, particularly by avoiding the internal keyway in the wheel. Just one slight word of caution though - the grubscrew can never be as secure as the keyway, but as long as you lock the spindle during heavy cuts all should be fine. (I tend to be lazy at times and forget to lock the spindle, just relying on the pin).

Reading my article again, I'm afraid that I wasn't quite specific enough about the backstop thread. I did use a tap that I managed to borrow from a friend.

Hope that you enjoy using the indexing head, and would be interested to hear how you get on with it.

Regards, Roger