Home built indexer for Buddy
These are some photos (I hope!) of my indexer. I have just tried it out and seems to be working OK. I was always told that there wasn't enough Z height for an indexer, so I decided to make a mount for a smaller router and use my original router holder and could essentially make any amount of Z that I wanted. I also had no idea how to do the electrical and programming for an indexer motor, so I decided to use the existing X motor and leave all of that alone. I built a separate bed for the indexer to hold the head and tailstock and mounted it on the moving table rails. I can disengage the table pinion and in the released position, the pinion meshes with the same size pinion to drive the headstock. I figured if I didn't change the ratio anywhere that everything would cut the same as if it were still driving the table. The wooden gears were made from the Gearotic Motion program and, of course, cut on the Buddy. They work fine for what it is. My main objective was to see if my idea of using the X motor as is to turn the headstock was OK. That seems to work good. My turning will mainly be for table legs and spindles, etc. I realize that this is not as accurate as a real life indexer, but I think it will serve my purposes ok. By the way, I have no lathe, so this is it. Now, lets see if those pictures come thru..... joe
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