Indexer for the 7 x 14" mini lathe

[DIYSwede]

Caution: Verbose post - jump to the pics if you're "text-challenged". TIA.

-Guess I'm not the only one here getting into another project,
only to find yourself first having to make the tools to even get the project started?

This is only one of those cheap, DIY solutions for the rest of us, missing one or a few dividing heads in our shop:
A lathe spindle divider.
Not a novel idea by any means, just my take on what others have had for years, hopefully an inspiration to others.

Most inspiration has come from Dimitris: Mini lathe spindle indexer
and Harold Hall: Dividing on the lathe using the lathe,s Bull Wheel

I've been scrounging materials and useful stuff for this -
but when I finally found a few used 60 tooth 1.25 Mod 10 mm wide Delrin gears, I was off for a good start,
as you easily divide by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 30, and 60 (and with a "forked" plunger even 8, 24 & 40 too).



Odd thing with my particular 7 x 14" is that both its 20 mm spindle bore and the M27 x 1.5 outer thread is non-concentric by +/- 0.2 mm,
which I already noticed when making an expanding mandrel hand crank a few years back.
First is to get some sort of spindle thread adapter going, using a piece of 30 mm brass from a 3-armed lamp holder:



Tightly putting it on the spindle thread, indicating its awful wiggle, then chucking it with padding and skimming the surfaces,
it was finally true to the spindle center.
The plastic gear wasn't of the massive type either, so I had to turn a hub from this non-CAD sketch:



Turning some pretty bad 70 mm AlSi9Cu3Fe stock I made a few years back to a hub for the gear, threading the hub cap,



then smacking the whole shebang together with Loctite and a cylindrical nut (with provision for the handle):



Next was the plunger and holder, which was cobbled together from 20 mm Al plate,
some 10 mm mild steel stock turned, tapped M5, and ground to a 20 deg chisel tip
and some brass from discarded hi-amp electrical plugs providing the holder sleeve and handle:



Bolted the holder on the change gear cover with 3 M4 bolts, the small knob providing a quick insert/release of the whole plunger assembly
(indexing gear wheel easily turned off from the spindle by a screwdriver thru any 2 of the 3 holes remaining from the lamp arms...):



Thanks for reading, suggestions and questions welcome!

Cheers
Johan

PS: -Oh, I didn't tell you what project urgently needs this gadget?
DIYSwede's ZeroBuck version of this (available at Ebay for a mere $125, plus another $15 for S/H...):



New drive pulleys for the 7 x 14": 30 & 10 tooth and a 210 XL 037 belt.
Lowered max revs, but higher bottom torque...

[DIYer]

Thanks DIYSwede! We've added your Lathe Indexer to our Lathe Accessories category,
as well as to your builder page: DIYSwede's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Lathe Indexer by DIYSwede

tags: lathe, indexing unit

[willyb]

Great idea DIYSwede. And if you required some different divisions you could 3D printed a new disc with the number of teeth you require.

Cheers
Willyb