ON TOPIC: Coupla quick projects...

[sidegrinder]

I've recently noticed that my little slice of heaven is a wee bit short on layout and measuring type tools. I happen to know that I'll be unwrapping an Enco surface plate and surface gauge come christmas. Having a few previously mutilated digital calipers laying around, and being the tight-A$$ that I am, I cooked up these bargain-basement "beauties" to add to the arsenal. One is now a hole center gauge and the other a height gauge. Both are loosely based on examples seen in HSM and on the internet.

[miker]

Nice work. I picked up four of those calipers when on sale here for $20 Aud each with the intention of making them into somethingelse.
On the Hole Center device, are the points exactly aligned with the original tip positions or do you just use the zero button to get a starting point. (hope that makes sense )
How have you secured the points to the original tips?
I intend to fit one of the calipers to the lathe tailstock per John Stevenson et al.

Thanks for sharing.

Rgds

[torker]

SG...very cool...my kind of "project". Those cheap calipers add a whole new dimension to what the HSM can do.
I'm still putting my endmill sharpener gadget together. The XY table I'm using has .005 graduations on the handwheels. I was going to cut new mic collars for it but decided it'd be far quicker (and better) to use calipers on it instead. That way the 1/2 turn of backlash won't be such a factor.
Thanks!
Russ

[Tin Falcon]

Nice projects. It is pretty bad around here when you have to label a thread "On Topic". Question though how do you Zero them ? from the pic it does not look like you can. Or do you set the zero to one inch and add it on?
Tin

[BadDog]

Very nice. I can see some awkward usage issues with each, but for the price! Well done!

Issue 1: How do you zero the hole center caliper? Set it approximately to a known dimension by getting the points visually aligned with a block stack or something, then use the delta measurement?

Issue 2: No offset of the height gage finger. Easily fixed using the trimmings from the other that I see in the back ground. Otherwise, I guess that will be using a delta-zero technique too?

BTW, I’m currently butchering that calipers brother to build a “DRO” for my lathe saddle. Way to go!

Edit: Looks like I'm not the only one to have questions about the zero. That'll teach me to refresh before replying when I've opened multiple browsers and took a while to get to a post. <sigh>

[torker]

The height guage...I'm betting that the block is 1" thick. You'd zero it there then add an inch to the actual reading.

[torker]

And the centering guage...you'd know the diameter of the pins so you'd just zero them when they where together but you'd have to add the center to center distance....or something like that.
Russ

[BadDog]

And the centering guage...you'd know the diameter of the pins so you'd just zero them when they where together but you'd have to add the center to center distance....or something like that.
Russ

Ok, that's a big ol’ "Well duh!" for me. 1/2" pins turned to points, zero together, add 0.500 to any measurement.

[BadDog]

The height guage...I'm betting that the block is 1" thick. You'd zero it there then add an inch to the actual reading.

I still think you would need to zero against a 1" block since bottoming against the base is not going to guarantee 1" exactly at the tip. It might be "good enough", but not nearly as good as it could be (I think).

[sidegrinder]

Yep, right now I zero the height gauge off a 1-2-3 block. I it's not the end of the world, but I think I will come up with an offset arm of some type. On the center gauging one, I "calibrate" it by measuring the far diameter holes on the same 1-2-3 block which are (are closely as I can read) exactly 2.5 inches center-to-center. These are a little less precise than I had hoped for, in that they are pretty sensitive to the perpedicularity to the work/alignment in the measured holes. I get repeatable measurements within about .005", which I guess is plenty good for the goofball stuff I do. Have fun! Sidegrinder.