An Indexer With a Mini Lathe Spindle

Thor Hansen describes a heavy duty spindle with an MT3 bore

Some time ago I made a Dividing Head using a spindle from a Sieg X1 milling machine. This spindle nose had a MT 2 taper internally and I turned and threaded the outside the same as the Myford ML7 spindle nose. This dividing head has served me well, but I wanted to have the possibility to mount work in my Emco Compact 8 lathe and do some turning, then be able to transfer it to my milling machine to mill the work. The Emco lathe has a MT 3 taper in the spindle so I really wanted an Indexer with a MT 3 in the spindle. A while ago a friend of mine managed to get a good deal on two Mini Lathe spindles with 80mm 3-jaw chucks, and I bought one of them. I also made a backplate so I could use the 80mm 3-jaw on the Emco. For now, I will just make the indexer, photo 1, maybe I will add a worm and worm wheel later.

The Dividing Head/Indexer was inspired by what I found at Tony Jeff ree’s website (www.jeff ree.co.uk), Harold Hall’s website (www.homews.co.uk) and George Thomas’ Versatile Dividing Head; I have also received valuable advice from Graham Meek.

Material

Except for the Mini lathe spindle, some Allen screws and two sintered bronze bushes (“Oilite bushes”) I used mild steel from my box of scrap, except for the plunger that was turned from a 5mm silver steel rod. The base was made from 15mm thick steel, the uprights from 12mm and the spacers between the uprights from 8mm thick steel. The front bearing housing was made from a 17mm thick piece from my scrap box and the rear bearing housing was made from a suitable piece of steel, the turned to the required dimensions.

Base, uprights and spacers