Any compound slide dials that have a zeroing feature?

[Mr Fixit]

Hi Group,

I've been working on a small part that has been a challenge for me, and I crashed a couple of times because my compound cross slide does not have a zeroing feature and I lost track of things..
Does any ones lathe have this, like a milling machine does?

I have a Southbend 9A and my cross slide has a split dial that does allow me to zero it if I need to, which I do to keep track of depth of cuts. My compound does not and I'd like to get one or make one, any advice? What's involved to do this? What might I need? OK enough questions, I look forward to the discussion.

I would appreciate any help, advice, pictures, or links to something that might help me out.

TX
Mr fixit for the family
Chris

[The Metal Butcher]

Hi Group,

I've been working on a small part that has been a challenge for me, and I crashed a couple of times because my compound cross slide does not have a zeroing feature and I lost track of things..
Does any ones lathe have this, like a milling machine does?

I have a Southbend 9A and my cross slide has a split dial that does allow me to zero it if I need to, which I do to keep track of depth of cuts. My compound does not and I'd like to get one or make one, any advice? What's involved to do this? What might I need? OK enough questions, I look forward to the discussion.

I would appreciate any help, advice, pictures, or links to something that might help me out.

TX
Mr fixit for the family
Chris

Every big lathe has one, sure. Usually they are annoying, with a set screw. Dad's Lagun uses a friction ring, easy to bump. My Sidney uses a lock collar, just like the cross-slide.

I am curious as to what type of work you are doing that requires such accurate compound movement? Secondly, Can you use an indicator?

[Paul Alciatore]

My SB-9 has dials on both the cross slide and compound that can be zeroed. Both of them have set screws that can be loosened and turned to any position (like zero) and then re-tightened. They are essentially identical. I believe one of them had a thumb screw when I purchased the lathe, but I exchanged it for a set screw because the set screw got in my way.

[Randy]

Is your lathe SBL 9A not like this? (I know it says metric, but inch would be the same.) Maybe the dial is stuck on the screw shaft? Even if you had to go to the extreme of remachining the screw shaft (just the back end, not the threads) and making a new dial from scratch, which is unlikely, thats all do-able, and worth the effort.

[Mr Fixit]

HI Randy,

Yes I have the original like the picture shows for the cross slide but the compound has a different one. So it looks like all I need to do is source the original type and I'll be good to go.

The small part is the last picture.




TX
Mr fixit for the family
Chris

[rdfeil]

Chris,
I would take that cross slide knob and dial apart and see what you really have there. I am not a South Bend person, but every South Bend I have ever seen has had Ball Crank handles on the slides. I am wondering if someone made those mods or adapted something. Once you see it apart you might see an easy way to get what you want. Also, my 17" LeBlond has adjustable zero dials on both slides.

[nickel-city-fab]

I have an SB9 and both dials are zero-able. There's a screw hole drilled and tapped right through one of the numbers on the compound dial. Same as Paul Alciatore, I put a slotted screw in.

[SLK001]

HI Randy,

Yes I have the original like the picture shows for the cross slide but the compound has a different one. So it looks like all I need to do is source the original type and I'll be good to go.

The small part is the last picture.

Your cross-slide dial is home made. You should be able to just replace it with an original part, if the lead screw wasn't modified too badly. You could probably modify the one on it now to make it zeroable, but we'd have to see the assembly apart to make that determination.

What is the small part from?

[Bob Engelhardt]

This looks like its holding the knob to the shaft - tighten to expand the inside-out "jaws":



If so, could it be used to zero the dial?

[JoeLee]

Your cross-slide dial is home made. You should be able to just replace it with an original part, if the lead screw wasn't modified too badly. You could probably modify the one on it now to make it zeroable, but we'd have to see the assembly apart to make that determination.

What is the small part from?

Looks pretty good for home made. Obviously you know what your looking at as I'm not familiar with that machine. Finding the original parts would be the easiest way or see if the knob can be parted from the dial and come up with a way to lock the dial. I can't really make any comments or further suggestions with out seeing everything apart.
You'd have to be able to tighten the knob to the shaft while leaving the dial free to turn and independently locked.


JL.............

[GadgetBuilder]

George Thomas described free spinning dial locks in "Model Engineer's Workshop Manual". I adapted his idea for my 7X12 -- pretty easy to do although it required slightly different schemes for the compound vs the cross slide.

[old mart]

I thought they all had zeroing dials. The Smart & Brown model A has zeroing dials on the saddle traverse wheel, the cross slide, the compound and I added one to the tailstock. Even my little 7 x 12 Chinese at home has them on the cross slide and compound. You need to look at ways of modifying yours with a suitably engraved ring.

[nickel-city-fab]

This looks like its holding the knob to the shaft - tighten to expand the inside-out "jaws":
If so, could it be used to zero the dial?

Quite possible, I couldn't hurt to try.

[boslab]

Don’t understand, the calibrated engraved dial should spin with moderate pressure, the unusual star wheel solid fixed connection to leadscrew, that’s all the lathes I’ve ever used, even a craven 15 metre long beast had indexable dials ( about as accurate as a tape measure) I’d guess overtightened myself
mark

[BCRider]

Looking at pictures online for 9A compounds a lot of the index collars look like yours. And a good number of those have a set screw to permit zeroing. In those pictures the set screw is located on the other side between the 80 and 90 index marks. Does your index collar not have a screw there as well?

If it does then the intention is that it should be adjustable. But perhaps the person that did the new hand wheel altered things to lock it instead of leaving it adjustable. Or perhaps the star wheel was made so that it locks the index wheel by pressure? Assuming your index collar has the needed set screw it should be possible to correct the issue once you take things apart and study them.