Trav-a-dial

jefferts · Jan 23, 2008

Russ,
Judging from the fact that several someones are willing to pay a significant portion of the cost of a DRO for an old trav-a-dial setup for an EE...(one on e-bay for ~$450 !!)...have you considered making patterns for the bracket? Maybe its just me but this seems a bit excessive.
Steve

9192631770 "its not just a good idea, its the law!"

donie · Jan 23, 2008

Not much of a pattern, I made this bracket out of 1/2" plate. I never liked DROs on a lathe. The flickering numbers cause me eye strain.
http://s170.photobucket.com/albums/u265/donsmonarch10ee/?action=view&current=Don006.jpg

rke[pler · Jan 23, 2008

Yeah, I've been watching the auction and wondering. If I were the seller I'd be sweating a bit that the buyer would have remorse and fail to complete the auction. As you can see in the bidding history it's basically a couple of guys in a pissing match.

For those not habitually watching eBay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=320209062680

But the cast bracket is, I think, stronger than a bolted up bracket. I don't know that the extra strength has any real effect on accuracy or anything. If I had a spare I'd likely toss it a box and see about having a few cast up, the machining would be trivial.

kustomizer · Jan 23, 2008

I have a pair of those here in a drawer with a bracket for a bridgeport, the individual springloaded mounts are broken, do you guys need some if these or are you just watching them, I had no idea they were selling for so much. I would let mine go for $150.00 each real easy.
mark

Pete 31 · Jan 23, 2008

Mark I want one. Bill 650-322-2525 [email protected]

kustomizer · Jan 23, 2008

Pete 31, I will send you a pic in the am. It would best to let you work out the money part with Kathy or Jessica, they dont let me have that stuff.
[email protected]

rimcanyon · Jan 24, 2008

Southwestern Industries still sells the 10EE bracket for a travadial. I bought one 3 yrs. ago for around $150. They also sell replacement parts for most models of trav-a-dials, but sometimes it takes a bit of perseverance to get the parts you are looking for - some of the sales people would rather sell you CNC milling machines and don't know the parts interchangeability real well. Prices are reasonable and most models are pretty easy to rebuild.

-Dave

clocker2 · Jan 24, 2008

I make small parts on the lathe and made up a bracket that mounts to the bed and moves along with friction to the right side of the apron. Mounted to this bracket is a 0 - 2 inch dial indicator. I much prefer this to a trav-l-dial. I can face off the stock, slide this assembly over and zero out the dial. Then watch the needle move as I move the carriage to the left. If I need to go further than 2 inches, I can re zero carefully and go another 2 inches if necessary. WFM

Jeff Major

AlfaGTA · Jan 24, 2008

People are not digital and moving the axis or slide of a machine is not digital either! I have 3 lathes at work as well as my 63' modular at home. With the exception of the Romi (CNC) all are fitted with trav-a-dials. They are just easier to use than a DRO....For length moves (Z) the ability to see the dial approaching the target is far easier and less likey to result in the overshoot so common with a digital readout.
Further, the style of gage shown at auction is the older version which i very much prefer! The current Trav-a-dial setup requires turning the dial around to zero the hundreads pointer then back to zero the "ones".....just takes too much compaired to the older two dial version IMHO.
Cheers Ross

jefferts · Jan 24, 2008

I like trav-a-dial, just not $450 worth! I had fun reading the responses till I got to Ross's just above and my mind boggled on the idea of a 63' modular....big lathe!
Cheers,
Steve

AlfaGTA · Jan 24, 2008

jefferts said:
I like trav-a-dial, just not $450 worth! I had fun reading the responses till I got to Ross's just above and my mind boggled on the idea of a 63' modular....big lathe!
Cheers,
Steve

Ahhh Steve that is shorthand for 1963........
Cheers Ross

rke[pler · Jan 24, 2008

Wow 1963 inch bed? That's a big'un.

Spence · Jan 24, 2008

Naw, Russ, geeze. You know that wasn't what he meant. He meant 19" swing by 63" bed.

Spence

Chet Spencer · Jan 25, 2008

It would be cool of somebody like Newall added a "analog" Trav-a-Dial to the DRO display panel so you could have the best of both worlds. Kind of like the analog clock in google widgets.

I'd like royalties on that idea also, thank you, now where did I put that patent
office phone #

rke[pler · Jan 25, 2008

Chet Spencer said:
I'd like royalties on that idea also, thank you, now where did I put that patent
office phone #

I'm pretty sure that you sold the patent to Fluke in the 70's. HTH.

(P.S. My, but you have a big organ.)

Chet Spencer · Jan 25, 2008

Thanks but I'm erecting a bigger one now

donie · Jan 25, 2008

If a DRO did have a feature that would allow better gaging so as to stop on a dime, that would change my opinion.

rockfish · Jan 28, 2008

They do..........or did at one time.

I had an Accurite DRO on a Clausing Colchester that had a dot in the center, and a travelling dot that came from either the right or left of the screen, depending on which direction you were coming from. You could set the distance when you first see the dot, I think ours was set at .125 or so. It was just like using a trav-a-dial. You could time it. I could stop the feed at .004-.000, consistently.

This readout was probably between 5 and 7 years old. I have no idea if the newer ones have this feature, but I would be surprised if they didn't.

lennoncs · Jan 28, 2008

rockfish said:
They do..........or did at one time.

I had an Accurite DRO on a Clausing Colchester that had a dot in the center, and a travelling dot that came from either the right or left of the screen, depending on which direction you were coming from. You could set the distance when you first see the dot, I think ours was set at .125 or so. It was just like using a trav-a-dial. You could time it. I could stop the feed at .004-.000, consistently.

This readout was probably between 5 and 7 years old. I have no idea if the newer ones have this feature, but I would be surprised if they didn't.

I have an Accurite 200S that has this feature

Cheers,
Sean

Trav-a-dial

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