DRO’s and cold.

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

My new 9×20 lathe is in an uninsulated shed where the temperatures can drop to sub zero in the British weather. After a cold night I usually turn a fan heater on an hour or so before I want to start work.

Given these cold conditions am I going to find problems using DRO's if I decide to purchase and fit them?

Rik

[Rik ShawParticipant @rikshaw]

will they work?

[mickParticipant @mick65121]

Leaving the DRO on over night you should insure there's no problem and will stop any condensation, especially in a cold shed, but modern systems should be ok any way. A far cry from the days when god was a boy and anything electronic had to warm for half an hour or so.

[Anonymous]

Rik,

My mill DRO works fine in an unheated garage; however it is a Newall with Microsyn sensors*. I suspect that condensation would be a bigger problem than cold temperatures per se. So optical or magnetic sensors should be ok, but capacitative ones probably not. The display may be affected depending on the design and PCB layout.

Regards,

Andrew

* Steel balls in a carbon fibre tube, so unaffected by condensation

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

Hello Rik,

Some years ago I worked at an agricultural engineers where we had a big DSG lathe with 2 axis Newall DRO and a big vertical milling machine with a 3 axis Heidenheim DRO [optical system]

In the winter months we had to thaw the coolant tanks with a red diesel fired space heater so it got damned cold in this totally unheated shed.

The elderly DROs both behaved faultlessly straight from cold, it was the lack of coolant that slowed the start of work. As Andrew says, the Newall system was often left on overnight, but more as an oversight, not a policy to keep it warm.

Regards Brian

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I have had no problem with my Dro's on my mill. I have with the Vernier calipers though.

Simple background heating that will keep a small rise in Temperature will solve lots of problems in the workshop. There are heaters that are called, 'Black heaters' plug in and forget. Fitted with a simple thermostat they will come on when required and switch off when a suitable heat is reached.

Me, Im lucky, my garage has a radiator on the house central heating.

Clive

[Ian S CParticipant @iansc]

The cold will effect the battery out put, and LCD screens don't like it much either.

Brian, maybe the old DRO used Nixie Tubes for the read out, they'll operate to minus as much as you like (or don't like). Ian S C

[MICHAEL WILLIAMSParticipant @michaelwilliams41215]

The biggest problem with operating all types of metrology equipment at extremes of temperature is that they go out of calibration .

Most metrology equipment is calibrated at + 20 deg C and is usually ok in the range of + 15 to +25 deg C unless of particularly high accuracy .

At temperatures approaching 0 deg C I would expect significant errors with some types of DRO – though it depends very much on the construction of the scale with some types being almost unaffected and some totally screwed .

A particularly bad situation is where whole assembly of machine and DRO is very cold but being warmed up too quickly .

Michael Williams .

 

Edited By MICHAEL WILLIAMS on 10/04/2013 13:23:34

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

If you have the money to spend on the DRO perhaps spending a bit of it on insulation would help prepare the environment. An insulated and draughtproof shed without floor insulation will pick up heat from the ground. My 8×6 store with 2in of foam stayed at about 6C in this cold snap with just the heat from the dehumidifier which has about a 1:10 duty cycle.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Any semi-decent DRO system should be specified over a reasonably wide temperature range that ideally would cover the range of expected working temperatures. Here's what Mutitoyo have to say about it. They specify their accuracy over the whole range 0-45C.Beyond that you might suffer operator malfunction!

You'd have to look up the spec of the system you actually have but hopefully it covers a sensible range too.

**LINK**

Merry

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

The LCD displays of cheap capacative DROs will struggle at low temperatures. Also, the battrery drain will be annoyingly quick – months rather than a year or two. Not an issue if they are remotely powered.

Neil

[Author]

Posts