Steve Fornelius’ Headstock Dial Indicator Holder

Here's another idea I put to use, a Headstock Dial Indicator Holder. We all need a way to hold a dial indicator so that we can align workpieces in the independent jaw chucks. I tried putting a steel plate on the headstock with double faced tape, and while that worked, I still needed to take off the whole thing before I machined. I decided to make a simple fixture that would hold the shaft of the dial indicator, but would be able to swing out of the way once the measurements were done. I came up with this idea: Turn a cylinder from steel that fit the hole in the dial indicator clamp. I made mine about 1.5 inches high. Then turn and thread one end 10-32 so that the square nut will thread on it. Make the threaded end about 3/8" long. Thread on a nut and slide it into the slot on the headstock. Tighten gently, and file off the end of the threads so that the base sits flat on the headstock when tightened into the nut, but when loosened, the base slides easily. This allows for about 3 inches of front-to-back movement, and the length of the commercial dial indicator shaft (with adjuster) lets me go out about 5 inches on a shaft to check for runout.

Steve Fornelius' Indicator Attachment

“Here's what I made so that I could mount my dial indicator on the headstock arbor. Using this I'm able to get the variance of the milling attachment to less than .001 easily.
The unit is simple to make: Use a blank arbor, drill halfway through with cut down 1/2 inch drill (available at any hardware store. I drilled and tapped a 10-32 hole to take a SHCS. Since you're not turning on the lathe with this in place it isn't important how long the screw is.
For the holder itself, II used a piece of 1/2" 12L14 stock about 3 inches long. I used a 3/8" mill and the milling vice to cut down both sides so the finished size is about 1/4" thick. The reason for this is to allow the dial indicator plunger and dial to clear the holder.I drilled a 1/4" hole in the end.
To use this, mount the dial indicator with 1/4-20 bolt and nut, then slide the holder into the adapter.and tighten down the set screw. Screw the adapter onto the headstock arbor. Put the work piece into the milling vice and move the cross slide down so that the indicator goes around at least once. Crank the cross slide until one side of the work piece is indicating and gently tighten the rear milling adapter screw. Crank to the other side of the work piece and note the difference in readings.
Then I simple twist the milling attachment so that the indicator reads 1/2 the difference. I keep moving the cross slide back and forth, adjusting out the variance until there is no movement of the indicator needle. Then I tighten down both milling attachment screws evenly and recheck the variance. The first couple of times you will probably need to loosen the screws and adjust again, but it works better than any other way I've tried. I can get a repeatable 0.0005 cut on the milled pieces when cutting grooves.”

Steve Fornelius’ Steady Rest

Steve Fornelius says, "I needed a following rest for my lathe and after a basically fruitless search, I decided to heavily modify on by JR Bentley.
I had to make it simple, because I don't have a mill to make anything fancy! If you can tell me how to post to your site, I'll submit there.
Anyway, here's the gist of the project:
One piece 3/4" x 1/2" four inches long for the base
One piece 3/4" x 1/2" fly cut to 1/2" x 1/2" x 3 inches long for the crosspiece
Two pieces 3/4" x 1/2" fly cut to 1/2" x 1/2" x 2 inches long for the upright and guide support
Two pieces of 1/4" brass rod for guides
Five 3/4 inch 10-32 socket head cap screws
Simple drilling, tapping and counterboring for the cap head screws. I found I could use my Delta 9" bandsaw to cut the metal, so I saved a lot of hacksawing!