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Indicator Rod

Dial Indicator Rod

On the right side of the head of my manual knee mill there is a rod that sets in clamp in the casting. A simple thumb screw holds it at whatever height you set it. Its pretty short. In fact its kind of in the way. If it was any longer I would have already removed it and tossed it in a tool box.

I'm not really sure what its good for. Not really suitable for a tapping head arm if you use the quill. I can't imagine tapping with the knee. Maybe it might be okay with a coaxial indicator, but that seems a bit of overkill to build a stop rod into the machine. I'm also not sure it would reach down far enough to engage the arm on my coaxial indicator.

Generally I think its an "anything you can use it for" feature at best.

Reply to
Bob La Londe
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I made a bar to act as a guide for letter and number punches and the main support rod is held in a collet in the spindle but another smaller rod goes into that hole to align it with the axis and stop it rotating. I've also seen it used for holding chuck guards.

Reply to
David Billington

That's a clever use.

Now that seems to be an obvious use now that somebody said it. I keep telling myself I'm going to make some mag base spray shields, but bending a piece of polycarbonate and clamping it to that rod might be really useful for keeping chips and coolant out of my face.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

I made a couple of mag base safety shields some years back and put them between the operation and me if I have any concern. Just about 12"x12" square polycarbonate and flat, the mag bases are cheap these days and sit out of the way on the back of the BP when not in use, handy having a mag base as they'll stick anywhere there's iron.

Reply to
David Billington

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