My attempt at a carriage indicator clamp.

[T.Hoffman]

Doing internal blind hole threading for the first time last week- turned out great but I quickly realized that I need an indicator holder for the carriage movement!

I had a mag base mount I used in the meantime, but that got me motivated to make something new.

I didn't want to have to use wrenches for installing or moving the mount- especially from the underside of the clamp. I remember seeing a member's design here (Roy Andrews, credit to him) that I liked since it used a handle and pivot clamp.

This is what Roy made (hope it's ok I'm showing his pic of his work):



I modified that design a bit, and made my handle for it out of some ABS I had laying around.
I was quite surprised at how rock-solid this mount is with just a little tightening on the handle:





Goes on and off in an instant, and reposition easily- no tools required.
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, I had just enough of a scrap chunk to make this.
I still want to add some grooves or something to the handle for better looks.

[gvasale]

Not bad. I like the idea of not needing a wrench to attach it.

[MotorradMike]

Very nice.
How did you cut the slot?

[jungle_geo]

Wow that looks nice with very clean details.
You could make it so you can interchange a micrometer head for the DI by boring the hole where the DI barrel attaches a little larger and making a split sleeve for the smaller DI barrel. Then you can cut a series of precisely spaced shoulders with great accuracy and fast, but then you might want to add a cam lock where the SHC is to make the change from DI to micrometer head a tool-less change.

[dockrat]

very nice and you can use it without the DTI as a carriage stop for cutting to a shoulder or boring to a specific depth.

[Forrest Addy]

Ive seen a lot of indicator stops but that has to be the simplest to set I've sever seen. Puts the indicator right out where you can see it.

Did you use a handle off an angle grinder to tighten the clamp?

[T.Hoffman]

I used a slitting saw with R8 arbor for the slot, .035". I only have three blades for it, .035 being the thickest and largest diameter. I went in as far as I could with that blade- I would have liked to go in .100" further to make the clamping force even easier around the indicator barrel, but it works fine as is.

Right now I don't have a micrometer head (lots of things I don't have yet), but I guess that option to add it in is always there down the road....

The handle isn't from an angle grinder, but that would sure work just fine.
Roy's handle might be from something like an angle grinder in the first picture I posted of his work, that looks more like a production handle part.
The handle I made is just some 1" ABS that I bored down the inside, leaving around .200" at the far end, and then threaded the remainder to put a 1.5" 1/4-20 button head bolt in.
I epoxied the bolt and threads to the ABS when I installed it. After letting the epoxy cure I ground down the end threads to my desired final length of exposed bolt.

I made the bottom "lip" that provides the upward clamping force so that when it is tightened up on the ways of my lathe, the lip is centered in the middle of the V-way width above it.
I'm not sure if that is why the clamp is so secure with just a little tightening of the handle, but it works great.

[dneufell]

like the kids say .... "dude,that is cool!"

[Black_Moons]

Very nice, Do you find the handle getting in your way at all? I think I would of been tempted to make it a pivot handle.
Sorta like this:
http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb...visehandle.jpg

Just so it would fold down/outta the way when not in use.

[Highpower]

Beautiful job T.H.

What is the material?