Hi Lads ,
I was asked on another thread by Matthew for a few photos of my dividing head so here goes .
The dividing head was designed by LH Sparey and the drawings are to be found within his book "The Amateur's Lathe" . This is a cracking book with a wealth of information on operations done in the lathe , milling , screw cutting ,boring to name a few, the book also has drawings for tooling/attachments for the lathe . The book is Myford based but dont let that put you off as its still relevant what ever make/model of lathe you have , and I would say its a must for the beginner and I am sure a few old hands would still learn something from it .
Here is a photo from the book of the dividing head . (dont ask for a clearer photo buy the book LOL)

There are two aluminium castings shown , one for the main body the other for the banjo , dont be put off by this if you have no casting facility ,mine was made before I got into casting , I did not even have a mill at the time , so it was all machined on the lathe from bar stock bolted/screwed together .
Photos



The banjo that holds the gears can be swung 360 deg ,to a convenient position for different setups .The moving banjo is also hand for setting the start position of a division .


A few different setups . these are mocked up shots just so you get the idea .
Parallel with lathe axis bolted to cross slide .


Perpendicular to lathe axis ,bolted to cross slide , bolted directly to the lathe cross slide puts the dividing head spindle centre height on the same centre height as the lathe spindle . This is because the main body is bored with a boring bar between centres with the body fixed to the cross slide .

Now combined with a milling slide there are allot more possibility.






Indexing is done using the lathe change wheels , no need to make index plates .
Simple direct indexing .

Adding another gear gives more range.

And compounding gives you an even greater range of divisions .


There is room to add more gears if needed .
Rob
Edit ; First photo