08-04-2013, 09:40 AM
Tom,
There are a multitude of ways to avoid losing the wires. What you do depends upon how you are losing them. The most common occurrence is dropping them while trying to measure on the lathe. Many people use a dab of clay, chewing gum or grease to help retain the wires as you lay the top two onto the threads and get the thimble of the micrometer over them. I'm pretty good at doing that, and simply lay a big white towel over the machine's ways & cross slide as "insurance."
There are also a number of products out there to buy which hold the wires, usually made of a plastic or rubber. You can make your own with a small strip of thin rubber sheet and just poke a couple of tiny hole at each end to capture the top pair or all three.
There are a multitude of ways to avoid losing the wires. What you do depends upon how you are losing them. The most common occurrence is dropping them while trying to measure on the lathe. Many people use a dab of clay, chewing gum or grease to help retain the wires as you lay the top two onto the threads and get the thimble of the micrometer over them. I'm pretty good at doing that, and simply lay a big white towel over the machine's ways & cross slide as "insurance."
There are also a number of products out there to buy which hold the wires, usually made of a plastic or rubber. You can make your own with a small strip of thin rubber sheet and just poke a couple of tiny hole at each end to capture the top pair or all three.