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index wheel sources

n7bsn

n7bsn

Joined
Oct 29, 2005
Messages
886
Likes
11
Location
wetter washington
Website
www.ralphandellen.us
I'm looking for an index wheel, I would like 180 stops, but most appear to end at 60.

I could make 90 or 120 work, but 180 is the goal.

Any pointers?

TTFN
Ralph
 
Ralph, I was going to point you to Bill Smith's website where he has PDF printouts of index wheel templates. but they only go up to 64. FYI it's located here:
http://www.smithart.us/download.htm

If you have a drawing program that will give an accurate circle with 180 divisions, it may be worth a try to print the file out and tape it to a disc of acrylic sheet or aluminum plate. Use an automatic spring-loaded center punch to transfer the holes.

If that's not practical for you and you still need a printout, PM me--I'm pretty sure I have a way to do it on my old Mac.
 
Multi pin soulution

Ralph,

You could do like Oneway and use multiple pins space differently to hit the same holes to obtain the desired increments. The problem with that many holes on one wheel is they either have to have many layers of holes, one humongous wheel, or little teeny tiny holes. My 2436 uses one pin for 48 and a second pin to get the other 48.

Vernon
 
I will check my index wheel and see if it will do 180. I believe to do that you will have to make an index block with a couple of extra spaces so you do 60 in one hole and then 60 in another and then 60 in another. I just checked and 60 is the highest number on the wheel.
I bought mine from http://www.ironfirellc.com/shop/. When I get home I can check on the other website. I believe it was VM woodworking who had a pleixiglass version with larger holes. I have his card and will give you his URL when I get home if someone else doesn't do it first. They were at the AAW symposium. It has the same 4 groups of index holes as the Ironfire wheel. The ironfire is something like Nylon and is very tough The index holes in it are quite small, something like a #35 drill size.
 
I would go with John's first suggestion. I have the ironfire index wheel for a1.25" spindle. The holes in mine are 1/8" diameter. The max on my disk is 60 holes.

You can see in the pictures below the "stop" that I setup on my lathe to use the indexing wheel. It would be relatively easy to locate a couple extra holes on the stop to increase the number of effective index points. The challenge would be to get the pin in the right hole each time, but it should be workable. You might be able to make an indexed stop to use with the index wheel. That would solve the multiple hole problem.

Anything that is going to require 180 index points sure sound like a lot of work.

Please forgive the mahogany stains all over the lathe in the picture. I'm in the process of roughing out a large batch of very green mahogany today and I didn't want to spend the time cleaning up the lathe until I finish later tonight.

Ed
 

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index wheel

Ralph,
You could also try www.alisam.com. Their wheel is anodized aluminum, with 72 holes on the outer rim, and 24 holes on the inner, IIRC. Not very expensive. :)
Kurt
 
Not what you asked for, but you could print a degree wheel (360 degrees) from somewhere online, glue to plastic disc, attach a pointer somewhere, and make a friction brake for the spindle.

That's how I did some open segment pieces a few years ago. Also built the open segment jig from a picture of the one that used to be sold then.
 
Richard,
You Cog Wheel is great. Why didn't I think of that? doh?
Actually, I had something like this in mind I just hadn't had time to figure it out as yet. Now I don't have to. Thanks.
 
Your solution is in the stop. Point #01 is the first stop for 1 degrees, Point #02 is the stop to add a degree because its a degree off the first and so on for 4 or 6 degrees. Then as you need the spread, you calculate it and go. I have this on my ornamental lathes and can split a degree in half if needed with one additional setting.
I made my own 36 position wheel and made stops spaced to go down to 1/2 degree. Thank God for my old Mac, it helped me with the layout sheet.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
180 spaces on a circle are only 2 degrees apart. Pretty small!

The trick I heard about years ago was using a bandsaw blade, wrapped around a plywood disc. The blade's length and the disk's diameter would have to be sized fairly accurately.

I have used a cloth tape measure in the same way, using double-stick tape to hold it on the perimeter of a plywood disc. The larger you make it, the better is the accuracy.

Back to the bandsaw blade--starting with a 3 tpi blade, 180 teeth would require a 19.108" diameter plywood disc.
 
If you have (or have access to), you can use Microsoft Excel to create a pie chart of 180 segments. Put a 1 in the first cell, then copy it down to cell 180. Then pick the chart wizard and select a pie chart. You will end up with a pie chart with 180 segments. Some of the segments will be in color, but you can always print it in black and white. You would have to glue it to some sort of backing and drill 180 holes, but it could be done...
 
Wow

Some really great ideas, a couple I had thought of, but some of the rest, are, well, impressive.

Thanks
Ralph
 
One tip I got that they wouldn't run because of safety issues was to simply install a saw blade on the handwheel side of the lathe and make a pawl that drops into the gullet. Of course your limited to 60 tooth, 80 tooth or whatever. I could see this working quite will as long as you didn't run the lathe with the blade installed.
I've made several index wheels using plexiglass. I turn the plexiglass round and scratch a circle in it about 1/8" from the outside. I mark off the indexes by simply stepping them off with dividers and leave a little scratch mark on the existing circle. then I mount this on a jig on my table saw. I cut a shallow notch at each mark location. Then I just make a 1/8" thick bar mounts on the headstock to drop into this index slot. I make these for my mini lathes but it could easily be modified for the bigger lathes.
After I made a few I bought the IronfireLLC index wheel. It's so much simpler and has more holes that I would ever build.
 
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