DRO advice

[john fletcher 1Participant @johnfletcher1]

I’m considering fitting DRO to my lathe, but are really short of space to fit the display unit in, are there alternatives but smaller available, and are the numbers/letter legible. My friends is about 250 x 200 mm which won’t fit in.  John

[john fletcher 1]

On john fletcher 1 Said:

I’m considering fitting DRO to my lathe, but are really short of space to fit the display unit in, are there alternatives but smaller available, and are the numbers/letter legible. My friends is about 250 x 200 mm which won’t fit in.  John

The only real issue is the cross slide. I fitted mine “horizontally”.

Magnetic scales are much more compact, but as has been discussed, are a bit more pricey (well over double the cheap optical ones I have just fitted to the lathe mill)

 

Jimb

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

John Fletcher 1,

I believe you are referring to the digital display, rather than the scales.  You could follow the TouchDRO route and use either an Android tablet or if the space is really tight, a mobile phone though the screen will obviously be correspondingly smaller.

John

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

John F – I see that Warco have units (for glass/magnetic scales) that look smaller than standard but (uselessly 😉) don’t list the dimensions in the description..

What is the set-up? – it’s possible to support the display on more-or-less any kind of bracket one wishes, it doesn’t have to be integral…

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

And to muddy the waters even further, my recently-acquired mini mill from Amadeal has a small display (CXM-3) as illustrated in the picture below. (Obviously not my mill!)

I’ve lifted that image from a pdf that I downloaded from the ‘net when trying to get info on the pin-outs  etc.  No joy.

Subsequent investigations led me to believe that the read heads and magnetic strips on the mill are specific to this installation.  An email or phone call to Amadeal may confirm this.

Given the chance, I would not have purchased the ready-fitted DRO with the mill, but bought a cheapo set of magnetic scale from the far east and fitted them myself with a large display as you describe.  Having said that, they work as accurately as I can machine and for that deserve no criticism.  They just don’t provide all the whizz-bang gizmos that the larger displays or TouchDRO give.

I’ve downloaded the TouchDRO app onto an old Android phone and in my opinion the display is perfectly adequate.

John

 

[Bazyle]

 

On Bazyle Said:

Just in passing as it is an appropriate thread… A few years ago before current style DROs became affordable there was a  version with a spring loaded wire that pulled out of a block. Less accurate but easy to fit. Anyone using one?

I’ve still got a BW Electronics one on the quill of my Bridgeport. Very compact display sits neatly central under the casting bulges that hold the back gear and the wire doesn’t obstruct anything so I still have full use of the depth stop / feed knock out system. Weakness is vibration sensitivity. The wire can flap around at times loosing its position. Generally I use it to accurately set the depth stop before commencing work. Handy rather than essential as I have DRO on the knee which is equally effective when setting the depth stop.

One oft touted advantage to pull wire DRO systems was the ability to run the wire round a corner. I’m a bit dubious as to how well accuracy is held in such cases. Takes very little run out and / or wire side to side shift on the pulley to induce a thou or 0.025 mm error.

Back in the day i bought some professional equivalents for the firm at vastly greater price that did all that was expected of them. Modern professional versions are far too expensive for folk like us and to be for longer distances than machine tools need. Suppliers most seem to offer ranges from 10 to 100 ft. Digital outputs tend to top out at around 500 pulse per inch so theoretical 2 thou resolution ignoring linearity issues. Which latter are not, in practice, simple.

Clive

[Andy StopfordParticipant @andystopford50521]

re. Magnetic scales, I’ve just fitted one to the cross slide of my lathe (I used a glass scale which I already had for the Z-axis). It was a cheapie from Aliexpress:

They claim 5 micron, and that’s seems to be pretty much the case – turning the handwheel rapidly can reduce the accuracy, usually by losing 0.01 to 0.02mm, but slowly moving on, say 0.1, will show it reverting to the correct reading. For me, that’s absolutely fine, and the price is certainly attractive compared to the (presumably) higher quality stuff from Machine-DRO.

[Author]

Posts