New Grizzly Gunsmith Spider Back-Plate

[adamsgt]

Trav A Dial

Wayne and Jim,
If you ever get a trav a dial, you will throw your indicator away.
Butch

Butch I bought a new trav a dial on ebay some weeks ago but haven't installed it yet. According to the instructions I'll have to make a bracket for it. The lathe I have has the threading dial on the left side of the carriage so I could mount the trav a dial on the right. When I was at Shelley's house and he was showing me around his garage he told me to get a trav a dial if I could ever find one. I don't remember much about how he mounted it as all the machinery he had crammed into that garage was rather overwhelming. So, could you possibly post some pictures of how your's is mounted? Please

 

[Butch Lambert]

I will try to remember to take some pics this afternoon and post them. I may have to clean up that part of my lathe.
Butch

 

[adamsgt]

I got the holes drilled and tapped today,

Jim, what did you use to tap the holes. I have a tap set with both NC and NF taps, but the 3/8-24 doesn't look near long enough to tap that deep a hole on the spyder. I looked through the MSC catalog and the extension taps I saw were 6" long and around $50.00. Is that the route I'll have to take or is there another way to skin this cat?

 

[Jim Wooten]

Jim, what did you use to tap the holes. I have a tap set with both NC and NF taps, but the 3/8-24 doesn't look near long enough to tap that deep a hole on the spyder. I looked through the MSC catalog and the extension taps I saw were 6" long and around $50.00. Is that the route I'll have to take or is there another way to skin this cat?

Jerry,

I used a regular TRW brand 1/2-20 tap. It was plenty long enough since the shank diameter is smaller (.366) than the thread cutting portion of the tap. In fact the bottom of the thread cutting portion was already into the central hole as the top was even with the outside of the spider.

I must point out that my spider is only a bit over 5" in diameter, so I was only tapping 1 1/2", but the tap would have easily worked on a 6" diameter spider due to the recessed shank diameter (maybe larger if I had bored a larger central hole).

Jim

 

[Butch Lambert]

This is a pic of my Trav A Dial on my lathe. You do need to make an adapter.

A Trav A Dial has a big .1000 dial divided in .0005 increments. The extra dial will show 6 inches. It has no limit of travel, so you do not have to remove it for any reason. An indicator could get in your way and you might have to remove it for some turning operations. I can turn 48" and it will still work.
Butch

 

[Butch Lambert]

If you use the 3/8" set screws and your tap is short, just counter bore the hole and run the tap on in.
Butch

 

[JDS]

Shiraz,
Sure would like one of your spiders for my Jet threaded spindle. Like the compact design. I could make one but im lazy.

JD

 

[adamsgt]

If you use the 3/8" set screws and your tap is short, just counter bore the hole and run the tap on in.
Butch

Thanks for the pic Butch. Guess mine is a newer version but doesn't look quite as substantial as yours. I'm intriqued at how that wheel is supposed to impress a track on the lathe. Did you have any difficulty in getting it aligned?


I was ordering some other stuff from MSC today and got a 6" tap for $24.00 on discount. Not too bad.

 

[Dave Milosevich]

Here's how my Trav-A-Dial Is Mounted

...could you possibly post some pictures of how your's is mounted?


I'm with Butch et al, who prefer the Trav-A-Dial for the longitudinal carriage travel. DRO is fine for the crossfeed and tail stock but it is difficult to determine where it's at when the carriage is moving with any speed at all.

The Trav-A-Dial manufacturer's website is not much help but you might give them a call. I ordered my mounting bracket from them. They can be helpful if you get the right person.

http://www.southwesternindustries.com/swi/prod_measurement1.shtml

FWIW

 

[adamsgt]

...could you possibly post some pictures of how your's is mounted?


I'm with Butch et al, who prefer the Trav-A-Dial for the longitudinal carriage travel. DRO is fine for the crossfeed and tail stock but it is difficult to determine where it's at when the carriage is moving with any speed at all.

The Trav-A-Dial manufacturer's website is not much help but you might give them a call. I ordered my mounting bracket from them. They can be helpful if you get the right person.

Great pics Dave. I'm going to save those on my computer. Didn't realize you could get a bracket from SW. I downloaded some manuals that had a lot of bracket designs. Your Trav-A-Dial looks like mine and it also looks like your bracket would fit my carriage so I'll call them today and see what I can find. Thanks a bunch.