dial gauge ?

[Hoyt Weathers]

I ordered and received from McFelly the magnetic base, arms, and their dial gauge. The dial gauge can not be zeroed as far as I can determine. I have worked with it for two days. In addition, I am unable to assemble the danged thing. There were no printed instructions whatsoever on anything - none, nada. The junk was made in China. I plan to order the same thing from Lee Valley, which looks the same, if they have instructions included. Comments and suggestions? Hoyt

[brocpuffs]

You'd best shell out a little more of that depraved money you have under your bed, and get better quality.

I was looking for a dial indicator some time ago and read repeatedly that the cheap 9Chinese) stuff isn't even good for toilet paper. I got a good quality dial on eBay, you may find one there, too. Maybe a better quality dial and a lesser quality holder? I saw an ad, at a site referred by one of the answers to your post, offering a complete set of dial, magnetic thingy and a few attachments, for about I think $20-30. This will be trasheroo-

Like woodworking, good tools are a must-

James [e-mail]

[Leon]

IIRC to zero in you turn the dial. Actually you don't have to zero it. E-mail McFeeleys and I bet they promptly send you instructions.

[Bay Area Dave]

can't you loosen the lock screw and rotate the bezel?

dave

Hoyt Weathers wrote:

[Hoyt Weathers]

Leon, I must make a correction to my post. The dial gauge was ordered from Lee Valley and not from McFeeley. I received a Starrett 12 inch combo square from McFeeley. I have never used a dial gauge before. As per your suggestion, I tried to turn the gauge. It would not turn until I loosened the larger of the two stem heads. That allowed me to turn the dial and put the 0 under the needle indicator. Then I tightened the stem head. Now the 0 is at the 9 O'clock position with the gauge held vertically. I can work with that. Thanks for your help Leon. I am now a happy camper.

Hoyt

Le> IIRC to zero in you turn the dial. Actually you don't have to zero it.

[Hoyt Weathers]

[The Good Bohemian]

Have you used one of these indicators before? You know that you can't 'zero' it out without pushing in the spring-pin mechanism right? I'm not meaning to be insulting but there are many common misconceptions with the operation of these precision instruments. The unit is meant to be zeroed out as a 'benchmark' measurement to determine the variance

+/- from that point. That total amount of variance will be your runout measurment. Sorry if this wasn't the greatest explanation but it's a basic concept once you understand it. If you already knew all of this and your indicator just happens to be complete junk, then I suggest getting a better quality one (depending on the tollerance and resolution you need).

HTH

Andrew.