Neck Turner Dial Indicator

[Thunder]

Howdy Guys -
I just purchased a K&M neck turner and read in the instructions that I can add a 'Dial Indicator' to the unit.

Have any of you used one of these with your K&M turner?
And if so, do you think that it is a 'useful' addition to your turner?

I'm considering getting the 'Fowler Digital Indicator' shown in the Sinclair catalog, but I'm just not sure yet if I really need one or not.

Any advice and/or opinions would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ron

 

[janderson0]

I have used a dial indiator with my K&M, but only cause I already have one. It's good for getting close, but I use a tubing mic to meassure my cases.

Jim

 

[rayjay]

Don't be crazy, you can buy a usable dial indicator for less than $30. You can use this same dial indicator on a concentricity gauge.

I use a dial indicator on my K&M and mostly use it to verify that nothing has gotten out of adjustment. Probably not needed because nothing has ever gotten out of adjustment but it is nice to see the needle jump up to the correct number case after case.

 

[billmo]

I agree with Ray here. The lesser expensive ones are good for checking your brass while using the turning tool. The tubing micrometer is a better tool for thickness checks. But, I jumped out there and bought the Fowler digital gauge and I like it very much because of being able to see the numbers really well and it reads .0005 also. Just my opinion. Bill

 

[BoydAllen]

I have a Holland neck mic. that reads to .0001. I think that they go for about $75. It works fine. I use free range brass to set up my turner, close, and then fine tune, carefully on my first piece of Lapua,for my PPC). The best thing that I ever got for my K&M was a carbide mandrel...major improvement, but I modified it by completely "dehorning" the donut cutter feature with a diamond hone.

 

[Thunder]

Jim, rayjay, Bill, BoydAllen -

Thanks for the info. I got the carbide mandrel also when I ordered the turner.

Call me 'crazy', but I will probably go ahead and get the Fowler Dial for the very reason that Bill mentioned. These old eyes of mine should be able to see those digital numbers more easily!
I need all the help I can get. : )

I just might try it out on my K&M arbor press too.

Thanks again for your input.
Ron