Indexer

[Peter Love 1Participant @peterlove1]

Hi all, on the Gloster tooling 5C indexer it has to be held down with clamps, if I cut slots one each side and use T bolts what difference would it make if any, I should say I have not yet bought one but will shortly.

Peter

[Peter Love 1Participant @peterlove1]

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Only difference is it will make it easier to use, my Stevenson's 5C has slots cut in it which is basically the same except the Stevo one will take ER32 collets as well.

I think Stew Hard did an artilel in ME not that long ago about cutting the mounting slots and also fitting a key so you can line it up with a tabee slot quickly.

[Peter Love 1Participant @peterlove1]

Thanks Jason, I must have missed that article, I let my sub's lapse then found myself hunting the paper shops for the latest issue, I will reinstate my subscription, to be honest I felt a bit of a prat asking the question, retired Volkswagen engineer with a mill and a Myford S7 I should have figured that one out but was concerned I had missed something, hey ho.

Peter.

[VicParticipant @vic]

I cut slots in the base of my Stevensons 5C indexer as well as cleaning up the base. There was a thread on one of the forums showing how to do this accurately using the bore of the indexer as the reference. So far though I've never used the slots, I just clamp the indexer in my milling vice.

[VicParticipant @vic]

This is the method used to mount the Spindexer for machining:

**LINK**

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

Peter

Before committing yourself to slots and a key take a careful look at the work envelope of your mill and decide where the indexer is best positioned for maximum versatility. I bought mine to go with a Lux style square column mill and originally planned to fit slots and a key. I'm glad I didn't as such fixed positioning would have been severely limiting. Especially when working on the side or ends of parts. Hafta say I originally thought that just about everything would be worked on from the top so a central position would be ideal but in practice there were plenty of exceptions. Slitting saw work being an obvious example. As it turned out I pretty much always used it with the axis halfway between slots.

Since trading up to a Bridgeport I still find the halfway between slots position preferable despite greatly larger table and work envelope. My positioning aid was to simply mill off one side as close to dead parallel to the spindle axis as could be managed so that a parallel, or two if some offset were needed, could be used to align it with a table slot. Works well enough but a bolt on baseplate with suitably positioned bolt holes to fit either halfway between or line with a table slot has been on the round-tu-it list since the first time I used it on the Bridgeport. 12 + years and counting so not something greatly missed!

I'm ambivalent about T slot keys. If made tight enough to be really accurate it can be a pain to get things mounted and properly snugged down. Especially on an older machines with imperfect slots. If slack enough to be easy to use accuracy is probably little better than simply pushing the vice, indexer, rotatab or whatever hard up against the fixing bolts or studs whilst tightening down. Thats all I do with the vices I use on the Bridgeport. Combined parallelism and repeatability is in the couple of thou per foot region. Swivel bases make it easy to get them dead right when needed. But I have the space for the bases, folk with smaller machines may not. Another one on the round-tu-it list is to investigate re-engineering the T-nut and stud system to have interlocking, self aligning, upper and lower components. If the top part were made a snug fit int the vice slots it should be possible to get accuracy comparable to a well fitting keyed alignment system in a more easily assembled set-up. Hafta re-work the vice (or whatever) slots to be accurately parallel of course.

Clive.

Edited By Clive Foster on 03/10/2017 18:01:27

[Enough!Participant @enough]

I would have suggested this – unfortunately, it's fallen foul of the disappearing photo scourge.

I do have a copy saved to pdf though if you need it.

[Nick HulmeParticipant @nickhulme30114]

I use some of my tooling on several mills where one slot and key might not be optimal so I use a combination of tooling plates and T cross section keys which fit the table slots, these give me a reference at table surface height for use with parallels and squares for locating work and fixtures.

Tooling plates are brilliant if you have a job you know you will have to set up again and won't be using the equipment involved for other jobs in between, you can plonk the entire setup on a shelf while you do other jobs then drop it back on the mill when you want it.

– Nick

[Peter Love 1Participant @peterlove1]

Thank you all for the replies and advise re the indexer, my mill is an old Alpine MT3 I have had it for some years and it works very well, I have just acquired an Elliott progress No 1 bench mount pillar drill, I have a compound table waiting in the wings to use on it, so I will be able to use the indexer on either device, I wanted a good old English drill and found this one, the one feature I liked when hunting for the drill was the quill lock, the machine is in very good overall condition with no holes in the table, however, the 5 groove belt pulley on the quill is falling apart, the aluminium has degraded, I have lifted the pulley off the machine and although it could be reproduced in my workshop (I have S7 also) I am not sure I want to try, has anyone information for a spare part ?.

Peter.

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