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Interesting - surprised it's an analog device.? ?A digital readout variant would likely sell well.
I added one to the cart to see if the price came up, but only saw "Available on backorder".
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Lone Tree, Colorado? ?USA
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There are several used ones on ebay.? Interesting little device.
On Thursday, March 28th, 2024 at 8:14 AM, Craig Hopewell via groups.io <cch80124@...> wrote:
Interesting - surprised it's an analog device.? ?A digital readout variant would likely sell well.
I added one to the cart to see if the price came up, but only saw "Available on backorder".
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Lone Tree, Colorado? ?USA
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I agree
They have new model is coming out.
Could not find any data?
Dave?
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I looked at the link, but cannot figure out what it does. Any help?
Tom
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This video is a decent summary
On Thursday, March 28th, 2024 at 12:48 PM, thomasfkeefe@... <thomasfkeefe@...> wrote:
I looked at the link, but cannot figure out what it does. Any help?
Tom
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Yes.? It is amazing how the manufacturer fails to show how it works and what it is for.
It has a wheel inside (and a lot of gears) such that the wheel runs along a surface on your machine and the position is shown.? The mechanical knob is in tenths of inches up to six inches of travel (and then repeats), the dial with the needle is in thousandths.? Both the mechanical knob and the dial can be zeroed.? So, it shows how far something has traveled, such as a lathe saddle.? Not unlike a plunger style dial indicator in function - but with a lot more range like a DRO would have.
A concern with this is that there is an opening in the housing for the wheel to protrude a little to contact the machine surface (such as the front of a way) and there is the risk of swarf finding its way inside which isn't good.
Here is a YouTube on it.
Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
On Thursday, March 28, 2024 at 09:48:13 AM PDT, <thomasfkeefe@...> wrote:
I looked at the link, but cannot figure out what it does. Any help?
Tom
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@ThomasKeefe
9:48am? ?
I looked at the link, but cannot figure out what it does. Any help
I did not the company was alive. Dave?
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It shows how much one part of a machine has moved relative to another part.? Same thing as a DRO, only purely mechanical
Have you ever seen and accidente investigator use one of those wheels that has a distance counter that they roll along the pavement to measure distance?? It is a function like that.? Only much more accurate.
Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer?
On Thursday, March 28, 2024 at 10:41:35 AM PDT, davesmith1800 <davesmith1@...> wrote:
@ThomasKeefe
9:48am? ?
I looked at the link, but cannot figure out what it does. Any help
I did not the company was alive. Dave?
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there's probably thousands of these out there that have been in
use for years . I don't know why they stopped making them in the
first place for how popular they are . But in today's world if it
ain't fancy & in color it's a deal breaker for some . The
folks that have them want to keep them . I'm interested to see?
what the price will be .
animal
On 3/28/24 10:01 AM, Charles Kinzer
wrote:
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
Yes.? It is amazing how the
manufacturer fails to show how it works and what it is for.
It has a wheel inside (and a
lot of gears) such that the wheel runs along a surface on your
machine and the position is shown.? The mechanical knob is in
tenths of inches up to six inches of travel (and then
repeats), the dial with the needle is in thousandths.? Both
the mechanical knob and the dial can be zeroed.? So, it shows
how far something has traveled, such as a lathe saddle.? Not
unlike a plunger style dial indicator in function - but with a
lot more range like a DRO would have.
A concern with this is that
there is an opening in the housing for the wheel to protrude a
little to contact the machine surface (such as the front of a
way) and there is the risk of swarf finding its way inside
which isn't good.
Here is a YouTube on it.
Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
I looked at the link, but cannot figure out what it
does. Any help?
Tom
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It runs a hard knurled wheel against the lathe way embossing the pattern. This acts like a rack with the knurled wheel as the pinion driving a chain of gears to the dial. A friend has one and it works flawlessly! When I wished?to own one they were $500, way out of my price range!? ?Bill in Boulder
On Thu, Mar 28, 2024 at 11:52?AM mike allen < animal@...> wrote:
there's probably thousands of these out there that have been in
use for years . I don't know why they stopped making them in the
first place for how popular they are . But in today's world if it
ain't fancy & in color it's a deal breaker for some . The
folks that have them want to keep them . I'm interested to see?
what the price will be .
animal
On 3/28/24 10:01 AM, Charles Kinzer
wrote:
Yes.? It is amazing how the
manufacturer fails to show how it works and what it is for.
It has a wheel inside (and a
lot of gears) such that the wheel runs along a surface on your
machine and the position is shown.? The mechanical knob is in
tenths of inches up to six inches of travel (and then
repeats), the dial with the needle is in thousandths.? Both
the mechanical knob and the dial can be zeroed.? So, it shows
how far something has traveled, such as a lathe saddle.? Not
unlike a plunger style dial indicator in function - but with a
lot more range like a DRO would have.
A concern with this is that
there is an opening in the housing for the wheel to protrude a
little to contact the machine surface (such as the front of a
way) and there is the risk of swarf finding its way inside
which isn't good.
Here is a YouTube on it.
Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
I looked at the link, but cannot figure out what it
does. Any help?
Tom
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I am surprised the Chinese have not made a Digital Travel A Dial. Maybe with a magnetic mount so use it more than one tool.
Dave?
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Thanks for the explanation. Thats very neat. I wonder how they do with backlash due to direction changes.
Tom
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Digital Scales are best. They tell you exact position and you don’t need to think about back lash. I have had them on my minilathe for years.
Dick
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I think thevonly complain was if need glass they where hard to read.?
Back in 1970's most shops remove and put DRO on. Then complain about skipping after the glass scale got oily or coolant?
So never put DRO'S on lathes
I only put DRO'S on mills.?
Dave?
toggle quoted message
Show quoted text
OldToolmaker 6:09am? ?
Digital Scales are best. They tell you exact position and you don’t need to think about back lash. I have had them on my minilathe for years
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For longitudinal travel on my mini lathe I use a 1 inch?travel dial indicator thet clamps to the lathe bed. It can be adjusted or removed. I used the 1 inch travel one because?it was what had. I would buy or use a 2 inch travel one. John
I think thevonly complain was if need glass they where hard to read.?
Back in 1970's most shops remove and put DRO on. Then complain about skipping after the glass scale got oily or coolant?
So never put DRO'S on lathes
I only put DRO'S on mills.?
Dave?
OldToolmaker 6:09am? ?
Digital Scales are best. They tell you exact position and you don’t need to think about back lash. I have had them on my minilathe for years
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As a former Trav-a-dial user, I don't know how they did it, but there was no detectable backlash whatsoever. The needle simply reversed direction with the carriage with no pause. It was very precise engineering, which is why they were so expensive new.
Someone suggested a magnetic mount... the Trav-a-dial required considerable pressure toward the vertical front way face to have the microscopic random pattern on the hardened wheel emboss a mating pattern on the way, well beyond, I suspect, what a manageable size magnet could hold.
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There are some ways to design zero backlash.? I don't know what is in a Trav-a-dial.? But one way is to use a split gear (imaging two thin gear disks) that are spring loaded in opposite rotation directions so there is no space between teeth on the mating gear.? Another is to spring load the entire gear to keep it fully meshed with another gear.? Another is to simply make the gears precise enough, so they have little or no backlash.? The only one I remember personally seeing in anything is the split gear scheme.
This is not from a Trav-a-dial, but just a general image of what the split gear scheme looks like.
In searching around for some disassembly info, I did find a mention that they used anti-backlash gears, but not specifically how, such as in this statement.
"... I did not want to open the thing up again. The anti-backlash gears are what is being wound up that the wire holds in place during assembly. This is very important to make sure that there is no backlash in the measurement. .."
Another post mentioned that older units had anti-backlash gears, so maybe newer ones don't?? Or do it some other way?
I then found a YouTube with a fellow disassembling one.? At bout 8:00 you can see the spring loaded gear.? However, it seems to be a single gear spring loaded in one direction.? I'm not able to figure out in my mind how that works, maybe somebody else can visualize it.? However, it is not spring loaded for now reason and must be the main ant-backlash component.
Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
On Saturday, March 30, 2024 at 08:59:40 AM PDT, paraflyr <frechettejoe4@...> wrote:
As a former Trav-a-dial user, I don't know how they did it, but there was no detectable backlash whatsoever. The needle simply reversed direction with the carriage with no pause. It was very precise engineering, which is why they were so expensive new.
Someone suggested a magnetic mount... the Trav-a-dial required considerable pressure toward the vertical front way face to have the microscopic random pattern on the hardened wheel emboss a mating pattern on the way, well beyond, I suspect, what a manageable size magnet could hold.
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On 3/30/24 9:38 AM, Charles Kinzer
wrote:
There are some ways to design
zero backlash.? I don't know what is in a Trav-a-dial.? But
one way is to use a split gear (imaging two thin gear disks)
that are spring loaded in opposite rotation directions so
there is no space between teeth on the mating gear.? Another
is to spring load the entire gear to keep it fully meshed with
another gear.? Another is to simply make the gears precise
enough, so they have little or no backlash.? The only one I
remember personally seeing in anything is the split gear
scheme.
This is not from a
Trav-a-dial, but just a general image of what the split gear
scheme looks like.
In searching around for some
disassembly info, I did find a mention that they used
anti-backlash gears, but not specifically how, such as in this
statement.
"...
I did not want to open the thing up again. The
anti-backlash gears are what is being wound up that the
wire holds in place during assembly. This is very
important to make sure that there is no backlash in the
measurement. .."
Another
post mentioned that older units had anti-backlash gears,
so maybe newer ones don't?? Or do it some other way?
That split gear is a pretty
slick setup , I can think of a few applications where one
could / should have been used .
thanks
animal
I then found a YouTube with a
fellow disassembling one.? At bout 8:00 you can see the spring
loaded gear.? However, it seems to be a single gear spring
loaded in one direction.? I'm not able to figure out in my
mind how that works, maybe somebody else can visualize it.?
However, it is not spring loaded for now reason and must be
the main ant-backlash component.
Charles E. "Chuck" Kinzer
As a former Trav-a-dial user, I don't know how they
did it, but there was no detectable backlash whatsoever.
The needle simply reversed direction with the carriage
with no pause. It was very precise engineering, which is
why they were so expensive new.
Someone suggested a magnetic mount... the Trav-a-dial
required considerable pressure toward the vertical front
way face to have the microscopic random pattern on the
hardened wheel emboss a mating pattern on the way, well
beyond, I suspect, what a manageable size magnet could
hold.
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davesmith1800
chrisser
OldToolmaker
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