isaac338
09-21-2008, 04:12 PM
I got pretty frustrated with the dials on the handwheels rotating around on their own with the vibration of the machine and ruining my measurements, so I took the wheel apart to try and bend the spring slightly more round to give it some more tension, and of course I dropped it and it disappeared into the depths of the shop floor.
This was my solution: drilled a hole right by the 15 mark, tapped it M4x0.7, and threaded in a small socket head cap screw. The knurls on the head of the screw make it easy to tighten and loosen by hand, and it's a positive lock so that dial ain't going anywhere. I find having it by the 15 mark is the perfect position to get your hands in when the dial is set to 0.
Sorry for the crappy picture - all I have is a camera phone.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q279/isaac338/photo-1.jpg
You could probably make it better by making something that would be fastened to the non-moving part of the wheel so the clamp screw would always be in the same place - it'd save fiddling with unscrewing it when the 15 mark is right at the bottom. But for the 15 minutes this took I think it's good.
This was my solution: drilled a hole right by the 15 mark, tapped it M4x0.7, and threaded in a small socket head cap screw. The knurls on the head of the screw make it easy to tighten and loosen by hand, and it's a positive lock so that dial ain't going anywhere. I find having it by the 15 mark is the perfect position to get your hands in when the dial is set to 0.
Sorry for the crappy picture - all I have is a camera phone.
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q279/isaac338/photo-1.jpg
You could probably make it better by making something that would be fastened to the non-moving part of the wheel so the clamp screw would always be in the same place - it'd save fiddling with unscrewing it when the 15 mark is right at the bottom. But for the 15 minutes this took I think it's good.