Help in ID'ing dividing head

[MikeA]

Hello all,

I've been wanting to get a decent dividing head for my Benchmaster mill (not a lot of Z axis room, so limited to the smaller sizes). Looking fleaBay and locally for quite some time without success but was able to pick up one last night off eBay for what I think is a good price.

The seller claims (and I believe) he is not a machinist and knows nothing about the unit, including the maker. The appearance is of a decent USA manufactured item of some time back, but I was hoping one of you pros with loads of experience can ID it for me.

I've attached a few photos taken from the listing.

Any help would be great!

Best,
Mike

[MikeA]

Hello all,

I'm a bit surprised I didn't get any input on this, but guess it's just one of those 'unknown' units!

Got it stripped down, and from what I can see it appears it may have been a journeyman's project of some sort - a bit surprised they didn't do anything about the blowholes in the castings, all cosmetic so guess they just couldn't be bothered.

The finish/fit of the machining is of an excellent order with closeness that makes it a bit difficult to assemble as everything had to be exactly lined up with guessing 0.001" tolerance  max.

A bit of time with 'Mr. Bondo' and the blowholes were addressed in short order.

One 'slight' mistake I made was not paying as close attention to the washers/wave washer/spacer order when I took it apart, so I have some 'figuring-out' to get it operating as smoothly as I want - may end up making some PTFE spacers/washers to eliminate any metal/metal contact. Is there more-or-less a standard for the arrangment?

Overall, a nice little dividing head that's just about the perfect size for my Benchmaster mill - the B&S #9 taper centers at 3" above the table and of course tilts up past 90°.

Any input/suggestions would be appreciated.

All the best,
Mike

[cfellows]

I don't see any threads on the spindle nose.  Is there any way to mount a chuck on it?

Chuck

[MikeA]

Hello Bogs and Chuck,

Thanks for the input; Bogs - yes I know it's strictly cosmetics but being a bit OCP I like everything to look and function as well as possible; really not a problem getting the blowholes filled, I believe they even fill the imperfections on Monarch EE lathes the same way. 

The ratio is 40:1, with 40 full turns for 360° of revolution.

Chuck - see below for a photo of the spindle nose, both with and without the guard. I currently have the B&S #9 3/4" collet mounted using a draw bar I made up this morning. Figure that will give me something to at least start with.

Any help on this would really, REALLY be appreciated!!

All the best,
Mike

[mklotz]

Re the plates you'll need...

Using the DPLATES program (available in the DIVHEAD archive on my page), here are all the hole circles you'll need to do all the divisions up to fifty.  Note that this is a 'minimum hole drilling' solution and combinations are allowable.  For instance the 4 and 6 hole circles could be incorporated into a single 12 hole circle but that would require drilling more holes.  If you're interested in divisions greater than 50, run the program and input your desired largest desired division.

REQUIRED DIVIDING HEAD HOLE PLATES

DH worm gear ratio [40] ?
Maximum number of divisions needed [50] ?

Hole plates required for all divisions up to 50
4,5,6,17,19,21,23,27,29,31,33,37,39,41,43,47,49,

You may also want to look at the DIVHEAD program in the archive.  It can be used to automate the process of computing the turns and holes needed to do a specific division with whatever hole plates you have.

[MikeA]

Hello Marv,

Thanks for the input and the programs - a question; I'm running Windows 7 and as soon as I enter the second variable the program appears to present a solution but it closes the DOS window almost immediately. Is there a work-around for this?

I have plates of:
15, 16, 17, 1,8 19, 20
21, 23, 27, 29, 31, 33
36, 39, 42, 46, 49
37, 39, 41, 43, 47, 49

Best,
Mike

[mklotz]

Thanks for the input and the programs - a question; I'm running Windows 7 and as soon as I enter the second variable the program appears to present a solution but it closes the DOS window almost immediately. Is there a work-around for this?

There is and if you read the introduction on my page, all will be revealed.

[MikeA]

Hello Marv,

Thanks for the quick response - all HAS been revealed (and will likely serve me well for other aps.)

Great - I've run a few passes already and with the plates I have on hand I think I'm pretty well covered.

Again, thanks for all the great programs (I feel as though I'm paraphrasing Douglas Adams!)

All the best,
Mikie