Hello all,

There is room for improvement in my RT setups. I would not mind
spending the money on a centering indicator (if it really works), but
round column mill-drill limits (correct me if I am wrong) appear to make
it pointless. However, I find that by mounting a DTI with the shaft
near the end of its dovetail, it works fairly well.

I would have an easier time given a spud of some type, but once it is
close, I seem to be able to align it, but there must be a smarter way.
I end up zeroing the dial to what I think is the correct position; it
helps me note deflections, but it probably causes trouble too. When
should I _not_ do that?

In case it helps, for indicating a vise, I find that I do best to always
bump during one direction of travel. Taking advice from various sources
(here and James Harvey's "Machine Shop Trade Secrets"), I align by feel
against the slots, then get the left bolt reasonably tight and the right
bolt just slightly past removing slack. Then I bump during translation,
but only with the table moving to the left. I do not try to gain ground
during the return pass because I seem to do more harm than good.

Is there a similar trick for locating the RT axis, such as making
changes only from one direction (left/front)??

Thanks,

Bill