Tail-stock DRO for Mini Lathe

[GeorgeRace]

Here is something that I have not seen before. Wanting to know exactly how far I was drilling into material being turned in the lathe, I came up with an interesting Tail-stock DRO.

I started with a 4 inch linear DRO, drew and CNC cut a mounting bracket for the tail-stock shaft out of .125 aluminum, and then bent up a piece of .032 aluminum to hold the DRO indicator to the tail-stock.
Drilled and tapped three holes in the bracket, drilled and tapped a couple of mounting holes in the tail-stock for the bracket, assembled it on the tail-stock and away we go.

See pictures below for the details. By the way, if you want the CamBam file or G-Code for the shaft mounting bracket, let me know and I will send it to you.
My next project will be to fit a 6 inch DRO to the bed so I can see exactly where I am cutting. Will post pictures when that is up and working as well.

Click on the pictures below to make them full size.
George

[hoss2006]

Really cool, I'll have to do that on my G0602 sometime.
I've used a similar clamping bracket on the tailstock shaft and a dial indicator on a mightymag,
that only got me 2 inches though.
Gotta try this, thanks for sharing.
Hoss

[fretsman]

Not nearly as pretty as yours but I did this a few years ago on my 9" South Bend.

Dave

[GeorgeRace]

Hi there Hoss and Dave:

Hoss, glad you like the idea, it rally seems to work very well.

Dave, I can no longer say I have not seen this done before. You really made a very solid looking install. I also noted the plastic covers over the face of the DRO's. If I start getting stuff on mine I will probably do something similar.
George

[blades]

I like it George!