A Simple Index Wheel

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:50 pm

I got to thinking about my question and decided that maybe, just maybe it could be laid out in Sketchup. After playing with it a bit, I believe I have done it. Then I got to looking closer at you index wheel and realized you have holes every 18 degrees and every 7.5 degrees.

What is the magic in these numbers?

ldh · Post by **ldh** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 8:59 pm

horologist wrote:ldh,

Looks like a good design. I'm not sure the wing nut is really necessary and it will likely be a source of irritation when dividing something into 48 segments. Where did you get the mounting ring for the block? What do you plan to use this for?

Troy

The wing nut makes sure there is absolutely no movement of the chuck at any of the 48 positions. The mounting ring is a standard split shaft collar,
McMaster/Carr.
ldh

ldh · Post by **ldh** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 9:11 pm

dusty wrote:Nice job. Very nice.

Now, tell me how you went about laying out the hole centers. They appear to be very precisely located.

I don't have any aluminum scrap like that. I'll have to go out and find a road sign....in salvage/scrap somewhere.

Dusty,
I use a simple little cad program (DeltaCad) to do my drawings and a laser printer for my printed template then an optical center punch to get nearly dead center on the holes. Not being a machinist I am sure a good machine shop could get all of the holes absolute, but heck I am working with wood at the lathe and frankly in the end it moves.
ldh

reible · Post by **reible** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:00 pm

Hi, I can't tell you the magic but I do know that have the pattern of 20 holes and 48 holes will give you a set of segments you can produce.

In this case it is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, and 48. This seems like a reasonable set but one could pick other numbers if one wanted to. Like if you picked 24 and 36 holes then the set is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 18, 24, 30, 36, and 48. I guess magic is what you want it to do.

Ed

dusty wrote:I got to thinking about my question and decided that maybe, just maybe it could be laid out in Sketchup. After playing with it a bit, I believe I have done it. Then I got to looking closer at you index wheel and realized you have holes every 18 degrees and every 7.5 degrees.

What is the magic in these numbers?

ldh · Post by **ldh** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 10:15 pm

Dusty,
Ed is correct, you can use about any combination of holes you can think of.
I chose 7.5° and 18° and ended up drilling 71 holes counting the center and attachment holes for the plate. My back and arms were sore for a couple of days after center punching and the drilling. Getting old is a full time job and then we go out to the shop and work all day to add a little more misery.
ldh

ldh · Post by **ldh** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 12:20 pm

I finished the project of mounting a small router to the tool rest of my 520 to use with the index wheel. With the quill unlocked the work can travel to the router bit or the quill can be locked and the router moved. I don't know how much I will use it, but heck it was fun to built with my SS. Any comments or questions appreciated.
ldh

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nuhobby · Post by **nuhobby** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 3:42 pm

I like it, ldh!

cincinnati · Post by **cincinnati** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:56 am

Just one more idea. I saw someone use a saw blade as an index wheel.

recurvearcher · Post by **recurvearcher** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:17 am

The router mount looks great. Thanks for posting the pictures!

jgrounds · Post by **jgrounds** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:51 pm

ldh wrote:I finished the project of mounting a small router to the tool rest of my 520 to use with the index wheel. With the quill unlocked the work can travel to the router bit or the quill can be locked and the router moved. I don't know how much I will use it, but heck it was fun to built with my SS. Any comments or questions appreciated.
ldh

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Awesome idea!!

http://www.shopsmith.net/forums/showpos ... ostcount=1

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John