Victor D.

Rivera

Met 112

October 13, 2010

Dial Indicators

Dial indicators are precision measuring tools with many uses in the machine shop.

A plunger moves in and out from the body of the indicator and rotates the measuring needle on
a dial face. Dial indicators usually have either a 1 or 2 range and are calibrated in increments
of .001 . A smaller dial reads each revolution of the larger dial in increments of 0.100.

The outer bezel rotates and turns the numeric scale with it so that you can set the indicator to
zero at any plunger position.

In this report I will describe the procedure for centering cylindrical stock in a 4-jaw chuck.

The basic procedure is as follows:

Open the chuck jaws wide enough to accept the workpiece

Visually center the workpiece use circles on chuck face as a guide
Tighten each of the jaws until snug
 Position dial indicator plunger straight up on top center of workpiece

These steps get us ready. Next we follow these steps

Turn chuck by hand observing movement of dial indicator needle

Stop chuck with dial indicator needle at maximum counterclockwise deflection
Loosen topmost jaw slightly
Rotate chuck by hand 180 to move opposite jaw to top
Slightly tighten jaw that is now on top
Repeat these steps until DI needle shows little or no movement when chuck is rotated

If the bolt is off center, the DI plunger will move in and out as the chuck rotates. When the bolt
is properly centered there will be little or no movement of the plunger and the needle of the DI
will move only .001 or less.

Heres how it works: When the dial indicator needle is at its maximum counterclockwise
movement, the top surface of the workpiece is at its lowest point. We loosen the topmost jaw
to make room to move the workpiece upwards, then rotate the chuck to bring the opposite jaw
on top (or any position where you can easily tighten it) and then tighten that jaw to move the
workpiece more on center.

Initially, you will make relatively large movements of the workpiece, but as it becomes more
nearly centered you will need only to make smaller adjustments. When you get very close to
center the dial indicator needle is moving just a few thousandths- you can make the final
centering adjustments by tightening the opposite jaw without first loosening the topmost jaw.
This will ensure that the workpiece is tightly clamped and will help to avoid overshooting when
only a very small adjustment is needed.