Low Profile Mini Mill DTI Indicator Holder for Hole Alignment and Centring

As a bench top mill user, I often find myself with too little Z height when trying to centre an existing circular feature under the spindle. This rack and pinion DTI centring attachment made from a repurposed microscope stage gives more headroom than some other methods, and was a nice project to introduce me to cutting dovetails.

Activities include cutting a female dovetail in brass, making fluted knobs without the use of a rotary table, threading with a tailstock die holder and general drilling, milling, turning and tapping.

If your maths is as rusty as mine, I can recommend Mark Ganson’s online dovetail calculator

Approximate imperial sizes are shown. They're not direct equivalents, but are intended to give the non-metric viewer a rough feel for what I'm doing.

Made with subtitles -click the CC box.

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Filmed and constructed during March and April 2020. The only place I could find a quiet spot to record the commentary during the UK's Covid 19 lockdown was in the car, hence the unusual ambience.

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For the material I couldn't capture myself, my thanks goes to the following:

Drew Garrett for the use of his stills of the Verdict centring attachment.

@Swisstoolmaker for the use of his video of the Hauser centring tool.
Check out his YouTube channel at

Whoosh by Aysonny

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Shot: HDC-HS700 1920x1080 50P AVCHD
Edit: FCP7 ProRes 422
Mic: DR-05

[rbclima]

Wooow, that's some serious video quality in there. It reminds me clickspring with less handwork. Respect!

[skysurferuk]

Your presentation skills are matched only by your machining skills. Superb! Subbed.

[carlwilson]

Fantastic to discover another British machining channel. This is real genuine quality. Subbed.

[Etna.]

Dang, this thing is beautiful!

I love selfmade tools, because they always show the love and passion of the builder.

Regards,
Etna.

[reiniertl]

Beautiful execution! And you did not have to pay a lot of money to get yours. Sometimes reinventing the wheel is the only way to save your wallet and ... your marriage.

[bobengelhardt]

Beautifully made and video'ed . I can imagine that making the video was WAY more work than making the holder. Thank you for the gift of it.

[eatenkate]

Super happy that you're filming again, a joy to watch!

[reaper]

Mate u have got some real skills there.. I've really enjoyed watching ur videos bro.. Keep these awesome videos coming mate.. Love them .. Salute to u SIR!!!

[drpipe]

Nothing like re purposing and boy did you do well said b4 your skills amazing both out of the box 💥 and Narration and Video superb. Smashed it again 👏👏🙏

[JustGuyMetalworks]

Wow, that is really cool 😃. Had a chuckle when I saw you just use the indicator pin straight up in the collet, I literally just did that yesterday to locate a hole on the milling attachment. I know, not exactly spectacular, but it was my first time having to locate a hole, so now I feel like I did it right at least 🤣. Thanks for sharing. You've got skills! Cheers!

[mrporridge]

really nice mate, the little gripper jaws to get hold of the DTI body is genius... very trick.

[peterm]

Great job, I would like to have that in my tool box. I use an SPI version that is basic by comparison to the one you have created.

[Stefan_Boerjesson]

Great work. Not having that microscope parts it will have to be another design, hopefully less advanced/complicated. Thanks for the idea.

[carneeki]

Really cool video! Is this for Emma's spare room toolmaking competition? #tmc2020 it would be a great entry if it were!

[tomsdreamshopworx]

If you going to do it, you might as well overdo it! Very nicely done.

[richardcooke]

What they said. Plus yours looks slim and the others look clunky and tall.

[nsvasquez]

Hehe, "3/4 of a mil." Anyways, subbed.

[BloopTube]

Can second the usefulness of that dovetail calculator, saved my ass in school.

[daveduncan]

I love the presentation. I figure RM has blended the best of Click Spring and This Old Tony into a very elegant, yet simple, precision machining channel. Thanks, RM.

[beatrute]

goddamn, whats the weight of that oil? 1000?