Dan,
Oil is a no no. For indicators. It will eventually harden and become sticky
with time.
BTW I and co workers have had good luck with Long island indicator over the
years.
Rick R
"Dan Murphy" wrote in message
.. .
"Harold and Susan Vordos" wrote in
:


Dam, Dan, I don't know if you're a good guy, or stupid (no offense
meant).

Well, I always look at it as being for the greater good. Where I work we
sell machines, so we are doing turnkey's or service.


You're a lot more generous than I am. I DO NOT LEND TOOLS! Full stop!
I've been very fortunate to have kept all my precision tools in pretty
good shape, with the vast majority now over 45 years old. I got in
just as Starrett went to satin chrome, so almost all of my tools are
so finished. Thanks to never letting others use them, they're all
still almost perfect. My one sadness is my vernier protractor isn't
satin chrome, and it's getting harder and harder to read as I get
older, thanks to poor eyes.

I know the feeling. I used to use an eye loupe on occasion, now I use it
all the time.


Like you, I can't quite warm up to spending $67 to have my one Bestest
sent in for the crystal to be replaced. I'm seriously considering
installing one myself (assuming I can buy one, that is), but it's not
something I've done before. If you have any pointers, I'd welcome
them.

I decided to take the Interapid and the Bestest and try repairing them
myself. I figured what the heck, if I screw it up, I can still pay the
$67.00. You can order a new crystal for the Bestest for around $7.00 to
$9.00. I haven't ordered one yet, but I did remove it, clean it up, and
put it back. I also reset the clock hand, and tightened up the joint
where the tip screws in and swivels. The end result checking it with gage
blocks on a surface plate were good. Repeats dead on. It read the
difference between a .0500" and a .05005" gage block. I also checked +/-
.002" and it read dead on. I still have a little side play though, when I
slide the gage blocks sideways under the tip I get between a 50
millionths and one tenth movement on the dial. I think that this is just
wear in the bushing, as this indicator has been used for indicating
machines its whole life. I'm going to try polishing the crystal with
diamond compound, If that doesn't work, I'll just buy a new one. I'm
going to keep using this as a secondary indicator, for dialing in tools
in a CNC Swiss that's dripping with cutting oil.
The Interapid was a little trickier. I removed the two screws behind the
clock mechanism that hold it to the body, this causes the clock spring to
unwind. There are two holes on the back that allow you to unscrew the
bezel. Once I had the bezel off I removed the crystal and cleaned it,
along with the clock face. I put it all back together and gave it a
little oil, and it now looks and feels new. Then I realized that I
couldn't rewind the spring and get it assembled with the crystal
installed, so I took the crystal off, wound the spring and put it back
together. This is a real PITA. It took about five atempts before I got it
right. There is a spring loaded gear rack that the gear on the clock
engages. The clock has to be wound exactly the right number of turns and
you have to catch the gear rack exactly in the middle. Once I got it all
together, I checked it the same way as the Bestest. Repeatability was
dead on, and there was no side play. But right away I see the big reason
I don't like Interapid's. There was error reading between different size
gage blocks, because I wasn't at twelve degrees. It took a couple of
times to get the indicator set right. I had it mounted to a Starrett
surface gage, so as you use the fine adjust on the surface gage it
changes the angle. Grrr.
Having had both DTI's apart, I have to say the Interapid has heavier
construction and it had less schmoo in it, so it seems to be sealed
better. It's far more likely to survive being dropped than the Bestest.
But, the Bestest is more sensitive and easier to use.
I also check a Wilson Wolpert .0005" DTI that I bought in a Dutch auction
on Ebay. It's Chinese, but for five bucks, I figured what the heck. I'll
be damned if it isn't spot on. It seems to be fairly heavy as far as the
construction, so for a low budget knock-around on the knee mill
indicator, I'd give it a thumbs-up.


Or, if you'd like to send me that .0001" Mitutoyo, I'll double your
money!
:-)

No way. The Mit has a narrow round body and a small dial (which is hard
to read) but it fits in places that the others just won't go, so it's a
keeper.


Man, what a great buy that was!

That's nothing. I got a Mitutoyo Quick Mike for $125.00. List price is
around $430.00. Listed wrong. But my all time biggest steal was a
Gaertner Toolmakers microscope. It's the type with the tilting column,
rotary table, and the angle measurement through a second eye piece. It
has a quadra-check DRO with printer, and a Mitutoyo light source in
addition to the built in ones. It came with all of the table accesories
(bench centers, v-blocks, etc), three eye pieces, several lenses,
filters, etc. And if all that wasn't enough, one of the wooden boxes had
a Starrett croblox AAA set of thin blocks, .010-.0119" in it. All
perfect. All for the princely sum of five hundred bucks. At the time I
bought the Gaertner there were several Mitutoyos and Nikons going for
three to four times the money. Fools! I was the only bidder. The optical
quality of this scope blows away anything else I've ever used. Oh, then
there was the Gov't surplus gage block set I bought. It was listed as
missing several blocks. $35.00. I get the set and am taking out the
blocks, cleaning and inspecting them when I notice the box rattles. I
look through the holes and there are blocks underneath. Yup, they were
all there. The only blocks that were ever used were the 1" and 2". I'm
guessing they used these for calibrating mikes. So, now I'm on the hunt
for those blocks. Gotta love Ebay.

Dan