Here is a close-up of the slot. This worked out great and now it's time to start on the lamp hardware.
 

Back To The Adapters

Here is adapter for the top along with the tight bolt pattern. I counterbored the holes for socket head cap screws (shcs) but they are smaller than normal. What I mean is, if I used a normal size counterbore for a 3/8" shcs, they would have encroached into the threads. So what am I going to use?
 

My Digital Read Out

I was thinking about all the holes that I've been drilling to make my adapters, along with their bolt patterns and wanted to show you a few things about my digital read out (DRO). This DRO does much more than just tell me a number in X and Y, it can do many other things as well.

By pushing the right arrow button at the bottom-right corner, this brings up the menu that you see below. I have many choices here and one of them is "circle pattern" (arrow). I use this one to help with drilling my holes. By pressing this button it brings up another menu. 
 

This next menu allows you to enter different parameters to make a hole pattern. In the case of my last adapter, it had four holes so all I had to do is enter the correct value into that area (arrow). Below that you'll notice the X and Y values are both zero. This tells the DRO that I'll be working around a center point.
 

This is the same area but a different page. The value that you see next (red arrow) is the radius of the bolt circle. I know this is a weird number but this is what I had to work with because of the two existing holes that were already in the cam. This is where I drilled two more holes and then tapped them all for 3/8-24 threads. Once I entered in this value, all you have to do is tell it the starting angle (normally zero) and then hit 'CALC' which gives you the screen in the next picture.
 

Another cool feature about this DRO, it's showing me the direction and distance to my first hole. As I move the table in the X axis, those numbers get closer to zero and once I'm at zero, I stop and drill my hole. Also notice that the INC is showing now (green arrow). This has changed from ABS (Absolute) from the previous screen to INC (Incremental). This means I can move from hole-to-hole and still have my original zero when I'm finished.

At the bottom of the screen you can see 'Previous Hole' and 'Next Hole' (red arrows). Once I've drilled my first hole, I press 'Next Hole' and the DRO displaces a new set of numbers for me to dial to. This makes doing a bolt circle of holes a piece of cake. No more doing and calculating or worse, if you have an odd number of holes you might need to do some trigonometry.
 

By pushing the 'View' button you can see which hole that you're working on. And in this case you can see the four points around the center with one that has a circle. This circle is the target hole that's being displayed so you have a reference of which hole that you're at.

Then once you're finished with all the holes, you push the 'End' button and it goes back to the ABS screen (normal mode). This is just one feature of this digital read out as it has many more but this is the one I use the most.
 

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