Stevenson Indexer

[sbwhart]

At the midlands show I picked up a Stevenson Indexer from Arc Euro.



It comes complete with an Adaptor to convert it from C4 Collet to ER32 collet use.



It comes with a dividing plate with 36 holes and a clever vernier indexing system that alows you to index 10 deg between each hole giving you 360 deg indexing.



Before I gave it a go I stripped it down, which was easy, and gave it a good clean.

I made some parts that required hex heads on them I could have bought some hex bar but I had plenty of round bar available, so I simply used the indexer to mill the hex, it was easy to set up and use. One of the parts also needed a hole crossdrilling, I used the indexer to hold the part whilst I did this.





These are the nuts I made far more cost effective than buying 12" bar and only using 1" of it



I think this will be a usful adition to my kit.

Have fun

Stew

[Darren]

Lovely,

I want, I want ...... 

I can see a bid of modding coming here, no holes to fix it to the bed by 

Best see Bogs before doing anything to it, 

I'm thinking we need a way to plonk it on the mill and it to be set squarly every time with minimal fuss.
A key slot in the base should do it?

[raynerd]

I was looking at these a bit ago. Just curious, what are the advantages of these if you already have a RT - just a quicker setup with quicker divisions?

Chris

[sbwhart]

I was looking at these a bit ago. Just curious, what are the advantages of these if you already have a RT - just a quicker setup with quicker divisions?

Chris

Yes:-  you answered your own question there Chris  but it hasn't got the same range of divisions as an RT

Stew

[sbwhart]

Lovely,

I want, I want ...... 

I can see a bid of modding coming here, no holes to fix it to the bed by 

Best see Bogs before doing anything to it, 

I'm thinking we need a way to plonk it on the mill and it to be set squarly every time with minimal fuss.
A key slot in the base should do it?

   Just bin round Johns ment to have a look at his indexer but just plumb forgot:- ho well next time.

Stew

[jim]

i think the only advantage a rotary table would have for me, is being able to mill rads.

i like the ability to index 360 deg

i can't find it on ARC site

[sbwhart]

Her you go

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Collets/5C-Fixtures

Stew

[bogstandard]

To save you the trouble Stew, here is a post I did about mine.

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=2681.0



Bogs

[sbwhart]

Thanks John

Just what I wanted

Stew

[jim]

thanks

not a bad price

[NickG]

Stew,

Good stuff, pretty reasonable price too. How did you work out how much to take off the round stock? Did you start on centre then move quill up until it was half of the size you wanted above centre height?

Nick

[jim]

i do it the other way round, ie, touch on bar, say 20mm dia, if going for 13mm A/F, bring down 3.5mm

[sbwhart]

hi Nick

I used the formula Flats of Hex * 1.155 = Dia

Then I just turned the bar up to required dia.

To mill the hex I just tuched on the bar then put a cut on 1/2 the value of Dia - Flats

That was it your only after a fit on your spanner.

Cheers

Stew

[mklotz]

How did you work out how much to take off the round stock? Did you start on centre then move quill up until it was half of the size you wanted above centre height?

The program TENON on my page will calculate the depth-of-cut needed to cut any regular polygonal tenon on the end of a piece of cylindrical stock.  It's perhaps overkill for squares and hexagons but handy when you need to cut triangular or pentagonal tenons - and, yes, I've had to do a few of those.

[jim]

i just get a nut and measure across the corners, works for me

i did once use a bit of trig to do it, and, then spent 10 mins looking for a nut to check

[John Stevenson]

I got one like that 

But it finished up getting cobbled about a bit.



John S.

[bogstandard]

Stew,

Living in a country that has had more nut size standards than anywhere else in the world, you have no need to measure anything.

Just cut any size hex on the end, and you are guaranteed to have a spanner in your toolbox that will fit.


John

[CrewCab]

Got to agree Lads, dam good bit of kit for the money  .............. JS .......... why oH why were there no tailstock's left, I hope you can arrange a discount to match the "package price" 

John (BS) I have your thread bookmarked and fully intend trying to follow in your footsteps with the Spindex ............. from my point of view the ER32 collet adaptor is what makes this so useful, 5c is obviously dam good but for my occasional use the ER set up is far more cost effective 

CC

[bogstandard]

Dave,

My mod for the spindex was my want to have it drop into the mill vice onto a couple of parallels, just so that I didn't need to use any clamps at all (talk about lazy or what!) and also be able to hold it at an angle easily.

While I was at it I did the whole lot, so it is good for everything now, as I have square 5c collets as well in my collection.


John

[CrewCab]

And indexed it to the mill table IIRC, ........ excellent thread .......... don't get me wrong about 5C, it's first class tooling but, at the present ER meet my needs.  The 5C has other advantages, as you recently pointed out in another thread regarding clearance plus the available shapes, round, hex and square, no doubt. in time I'll be investing 

CC

[bogstandard]

Dave,

In fact round 5c can hold round, hex and even triangle if you have any. It is to do with the way the slots are positioned, but not for heavy cutting other than for the round.


John

[NickG]

Bogs 

Yes, just keep milling until it doesn't have any rounded corners on the nut!

[sbwhart]

The indexer doesn't come with any handy clamping holes, but I supose the idea is for you to add the holes where you require them. As John as shown the way how to set the indexer up, my next step was to try and follow his methodology but within the constraint of my own equipment, and get the best out of the tool.

First job I checked the indexer over as best I could to see if there were any gross inacuracy in its build, I found it to be very good.

Pic showing me checking the face squarness of the ram, (Note to self you could you use this as a cylinder for checking squareness).



Then mark the centre line of the spindle onto the base.



Set it up square in the mill in the X and Y



Drill some 10mm holes for clamping bolts



Note use of jacking screws to stop things moving.

Then on the spindle centre line drill and tap two M6 holes



Then mill up a register bar thats a nice fit in the table slots

Couter boring the holes for the head of the cap screws



I'm using some cap screws that have thiner head than a normal cap screw (they followed me home  )





Setting the register bar up square to the face of the indexer



Checking the alignment of the spindle and register bar





The error was 0.05 mm over 120mm thats good enough for me

Next job as I'm planing to use the indexer on another machine where the register bar will get in the way, set the body up againe in the vice and drill right through the bar into the body so that I can fit two dowel pins in, this way I can take the bar off and put it back in the same place again and still maintain squareness.



Thats it I can put it on and off my mill with complete confindenc that it will be nice and square.




Have fun

Stew

[bogstandard]

The problem when I did mine Stew, was that the casting wasn't wide enough to reach the outer t-slots.

So I had to revert to using table clamps for normal work, and machine the base width so that it would fit my vice.

What you have done is perfect for your machines, nice one.


John

[GordTopps]

Hi Stew
I also purchased one of these from Arc.
Plan on doing a similar register bar on mine also.
BTW, do you know what the 'C' spanner that is supplied for ( cannot see anything that it will fit, or what it could be used for) 

I am still trying to get to grips with the usage of the vernier (the instructions are of no use at all). 

I downloaded a pdf document re the phase II spin index, and that is a little better.

Any info from anyone greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Gordy

[sbwhart]

Hi Gordy

The C spanner that came with mine is on the small size also I think it must be for a smaller ER system, I'd already got a ER32 spanner so I was OK.

I'll post a few pics over the weekend on how to use the vernier.

Cheers
Stew

[sbwhart]

Hi Gordy

Her's a pic of ER32 spanners:- the one on the left came with the Indexer its a bit on the small size and hardly fit the nut, the one on the right came with some other ER32 kit I bought and work a lot better you can get a bit of beef on it. May be worth giving Arc a call and query the spanner you've got.



OK this is how I think the vernier works

This pic shows the indexer set up at 35 deg:- peg in five hole, arrow between 3 and 4.



This pic show the indexer set up at 40 deg:- peg in zero hole, arrow on 4.



Hope this helps

Stew

[HENNEGANOL]

Stewart,

I have an indexer similar to yours however I can't remember where I bought it.  Reading thro' back issues of Model Engineer's Workshop plus reading the posts on here,  prompted me to have closer look at it.  I haven't actually used it to date, it was bought originally to enable me to index brake shafts for Fordson Major tractors, which were required by a friend of mine who has since had them made by a local engineering firm.

Comparing it to the photos you have posted the first thing that struck me is that the numerals are clockwise whilst yours are anti clockwise and are much clearer.  The other anomaly is that on mine in order for the main graduations to align with the datum the pin has to be inserted in the 7 degree hole!  So the original datum needs to be ground out and a new datum added.

I must confess that up until reading your post and the link to "Bogstandards" post I had assumed that the indexer was fit for purpose.  Thankyou for opening my eyes, I will now examine it very closely to establish exactly how accurate it is and modify it accordingly to enabl me to use it with confidence.

Gerald

[GordTopps]

Hi Stew
This is the "C" spanner that came with the Stevenson Indexer, the size is marked 28-32 and the collar dia is 53.8mm.



This is the 'C' Spanner that came with my ER32 collet set it is marked 45-52 and the collar dia is 50.0mm.



This is a pic with the ER32 wrench that I ordered at the same time as I ordered the Collet set.



Really glad I ordered this one!

Have contacted Ian at Arc and am awaiting reply.

Gordy

[sbwhart]

When I bought the indexer Arc didn't have the tail stock in store, they got them in a few weeks ago so I got one.



I unpacked it the other day and checked it out and this is what I found.



It was a good 8 mill under the centre line of the indexer, so gave Arc a ring and they were very apologetic and ask me to return it and they would refund me, there was no argument from them. So I went to pack it up and then I remembered, I'd added this to the bottom of the indexer.



  and double 

With great embaresment I rang them back and explained my mistake.

Everything lined up fine on the mill.

So decided to fix an alignment bar and to drill some clamp holes to the tail stop.

First job mark up the centre line I used the same method as i used on the indexer.



Then set it up on the mill and clocked it up so the bore was square.



And skimmed a datum edge.



Then with a clamp bar through the bore clocked the datum edge up square. Ran a clock over the flat face and it was fairly level good enough for function.

Then using the scribed centre lines drill and tapped M6 for the register bar, and drilled 10mm for clamp bolts.



I made the register bar again a nice fit in the T slots, but ran out of shed time, so I'll finish it off tomorrow.

Have fun

Stew

[bogstandard]

 

You're losing it lately Stew, maybe you should get your old job back, rather than retirement. 


John

[Darren]

I unpacked it the other day and checked it out and this is what I found.



It was a good 8 mill under the centre line of the indexer, so gave Arc a ring and they were very apologetic and ask me to return it and they would refund me, there was no argument from them. So I went to pack it up and then I remembered, I'd added this to the bottom of the indexer.



  and double 

With great embaresment I rang them back and explained my mistake.

Everything lined up fine on the mill.

Be careful Stew, any more of this and they'll be taking your toys away  


Nice work, you are making me want to run out and buy one now ....  

[sbwhart]

Finished the tail stop off and tried it out for alignment.



Spot on 

Was going to take some more pics but the battery went flat. 

Have fun

Stew

[John Stevenson]

Was going to take some more pics but the battery went flat. 

Have fun

Stew

What shape should it be ?

John S.

[sbwhart]

Was going to take some more pics but the battery went flat. 

Have fun

Stew

What shape should it be ?

John S.

Ho you are a wit

 

Nice one john 

Stew