Hi Martin, what you have is the industry standard, all the machines I have worked on over the last fifty + years have this format, Smart & Brown, Colchester, Boxford, DSG, and my own machines Myford and Emco and few others I can't remember . That's not to say that there may be exceptions but I have never seen any.
To do what you want you would have to half the division or make twice as many divisions on your dial — same result ! This would mean that one division would move the tool 0.0005" thus take a cut of 0.001" off the diameter of the work.
Hope this makes it clear to you but if you persevere you will learn to accommodate the standard format and remember if you do choose to alter your machine any other you may start using will give you the same problem. My advice would be stick with it !
Regards John
Edited By JohnF on 12/12/2014 09:27:09