The Dividing Head is also known as book 6 from the best selling 7 book series, 'Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap'.
This project really proves the worth of a simple lathe fitted with only a face-plate and centers. You’ll make some valuable accessories for the lathe and you’ll be a better machinist when this one is done.
Now that you have a machine shop you need accessories and tooling. You also need practice on your new equipment so here’s a book full of projects.
Build a four jaw chuck, a steady rest and other useful tooling. Build a worm-wheel dividing head and add change gears to the lathe so that you can cut accurate screw threads from 8 to 80 per inch, both right and left hand and internal and external. Make your own reamers and learn how the master machinist of 100 years ago made his handful of tools do any job he was assigned to do.
These are all items that many of us can’t afford early in our shop careers, but you can make them yourself now that you have a machine shop.