# ONE whooping Lumen Mill Tooling Mod



## modamag (Jan 29, 2007)

You guys with a mill probably recognize this little tool right! It's an electronic edge finder. When the edge (side/front) of the tip touch a metal object it lights up. This expedite the depth & edge finding process ten fold when compared to the wiggler & magnifying hoop. They normally go for $180 on J&L. There is a lower cost version available. Our China friend have also borrowed the design and made it available for $40/each :shakehead

Well I got it dirt cheap, almost $$$FREE$$$, problem is it barely works. :huh2::candle:

After a little investigation, I found that the internal electrical path is pretty simple. The guys at *Select* (manufacturer) are pretty smart, they make a non-conductive sleeve to isolate the anode path until the tip touch something conductive which is connected to the mill to complete the circuit. At which point the unit lights up. The sleeve is threaded into the body so that it can also be adjusted so that the filament is exactly at the red filter window.

Well being a flashaholic, I just can't leave the unit working half A. So... :devil:





Original parts list.





Updated parts list.

Well I just turned a small 0.300" x 0.525" OD nylon mount so I can replace the stock 5V bulb with my junky white LED (wish I had red in stock). I also removed one battery from the stack to keep the current level reasonable (50mA slightly overdrive by 150% according to manufacturer spec).





Spare parts.





Moment of truth!

As for future plans ... well none, until Cree/Soeul SC comes out with a 8mm package 

Enjoy everyone! :wave:


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## wquiles (Feb 2, 2007)

Very cool 

There nothing nicer like fixing a tool on your own so that you can use it again 

Will


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## Anglepoise (Feb 2, 2007)

Now could you whip us some 2 axis DRO's for us......


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## modamag (Feb 12, 2007)

David,

This is what I installed on my current lathe. A Shumatech DRO-350. It's a full blown DRO with the following lathe features:

- X/Z & tachtometer readout.
- Diameter Mode
- Compound Vectoring
- Tool Offset
- Surface Feet Per Minute

It also have features to compensate for my 0.005% sine error (bad installer, me).

For $320 it's a whole lot more DRO than my (praying/hopefully) new acquisition Lathe with Mitutoyo DRO.


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