Thanks for any hints, advice, etc. anyone may care to contribute.

Or you could throw together an honest to god indexer. A 40 to 1 worm
is easy to make with a tap, say a 1/2-13, in a lathe. It won't be a
acme thread, but who cares?
This is not the site I used to make mine, but it looks like the same
idea:
http://www.atmsite.org/contrib/JSAPP.../wormgear.html
The index plates can use anything with spaced holes. A gear, a real
index plate, a lawnmower flywheel...you get the idea.
The beauty of this is the 40 to 1 worm cuts the error of the index
plate by a bunch.
You could always use 2 worm gears for super accuracy!


Ron Thompson
On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

http://www.plansandprojects.com

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is
to fill the world with fools.
--Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)