On Mar 9, 1:47*am, wrote:
I was going to make a quick and dirty dividing head to use with my
Taig chucks on my X2 mill.

I thought I would basically run a shaft through a block of aluminum
with 3/4-16 thread on one end and a dividing plate on the other. Then
I thought: What shaft? What bearings?

Primary concerns here are not the rotation loads but absence of radial
and axial movement of the shaft.

I am not sure what engineering principles apply. Would an aluminum
shaft with a slip fit through a hole in the aluminum block suffice?
Presumably a steel shaft would wear out the aluminum. Would it be
better to use a steel shaft with bronze bushings? Ball-bearings seem a
bit of an overkill.

Maybe by the time I think this through I will find it expedient to get
a Taig headstock for $60+ and use it as a base for the project (a
common approach, apparently). However, I would still like to know what
is the correct approach if building from scratch.

Thanks,

Michael Koblic,
Campbell River, BC

Current Home Shop Machinist has a how-to for a cheapie indexer using
change wheels on an Atlas 6". I've seen similar using just a block of
scrapbox steel and a shaft with suitable arrangements for attaching
the gears. No bearings used besides a good running fit. A spring-
loaded plunger to fit the gaps in the teeth does the indexing.
Probably an afternoon's project. Or you can just get a 5C indexing
block set and have at it.

Stan