Fitting DRO to Myford VME mill.

[Martyn CozensParticipant @martyncozens74564]

Hi All. I have ordered a generic DRO 3 axis for my VME mill. Has anyone on the forum fitted a DRO system to this type of machine Myford’s imported them and I believe Warco had a similar machine as well. What I’m interested in is how the units are fitted especially the vertical one as the body of the machine is tapered. I don’t particularly want to fit the long travel encoder to the rear of the table as I’ll loose cross traverse and it will also foul the rubber way protector. For me it would be better on the front of the table, but this might mean having to remove the table stops, this would also be the case for the cross traverse. Any clues or photo’s would be great.

Thanks Martyn C.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

same thing for me with a raglan but I stepped them out 25mm so I could get to the stops. That was ten years ago and I haven’t used the stops yet!!!!!

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

The veritcal axis may be achieved by milling a corresponding taper on a piece of aluminium channel to achieve a vertical face to mount the scale. A magnetic scale can be fitted/embedded in the quill lock and an electronic combiner used to feed to the read out. That way once you have set the zero it will keep track of the movement of the knee and the quill.

The Y axis I initially mounted behind the bed but lost too much X axis travel so moved it to the front and lost the hard stops instead.

The X axis is easy, plenty of space.
All that said since upgrading to a newer version of the same machine I have yet to refit the Z axis.

[StevePParticipant @stevepye68246]

Hi Martyn

A few pictures of how I fitted DRO to my VME milling machine.

Steve P

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Martyn –

Steve’s photographs show similarly to my “Machine-DRO” installation on a Myford VMC – though his is neater – and gives you the basic methods.

I don’t know the VME but these machines were designed before DROs appeared, so a fair amount of ingenuity is called for to fit the scales to all those tapered shapes.

 

On mine….

The scales do need be truly parallel to the travel. I achieved this on the knee (vertical) travel by aligning the scale with a big angle-box bolted to the table, and verifying the setting with a DTI.

The vertical scale is on stout aluminium angle (50 X 50 X 6mm I think) screwed to the column via spacers. A shield fabricated from 3mm PVC sheet protects the scale.

The cross-travel scale is on similar angle screwed to the underside of the overhanging end of the cross-table.

 

My system uses magnetic encoders. By chance, an expired, plastic association-membership card happened to be the correct thickness to provide a strip as a non-magnetic, non-scratching feeler-gauge for setting the gap between the encoder and scale.

 

You need decide whether to keep the long-travel (“X”) table stops. I removed mine to use their T-slot to hold the DRO scale and its shield, and wish I had found some other way that would have kept them. Some would argue that with a DRO you don’t need the stops and I see their point, but as I prefer to make my machine-tools more versatile by adding parts,  not simply replacing them, I have pondered alternative end-stop designs. (A round-tuit task…)

…..

Steve –

I don’t know if that sheet-rubber shield is original but it was missing on my second-hand mill. I made a replacement from left-over garden-pond liner (butyl rubber). Mine differs from yours by its holding-strip being thin aluminium angle rather than flat, creating a little shelf drilled to hold small items like the chuck-key and “wobbler”.

[StevePParticipant @stevepye68246]

Nigel,

The rear cover is original (having bought the machine from Myfords , when I was attending a factory open day  in 2006 ) , I added the front cover , attached using the screw which hole the felt wiper and a drop of super glue at the front.

Most Bridgeport milling machines I’ve ever worked on , have had wear on the Y axis slides, probably dew to lack of slide protection.

Steve p

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

I dislike repeating my posts, but in May2022, Nigel posed the same question regarding the X-axis travel stops in this post (Page 2 – halfway down) and I replied in the following vein:

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For what it’s worth, when I fitted the 3-axis DRO system to my Warco VMC mill, I decided to re-instate the table stops by fitting a slotted strip on stand-offs from the front of the mill table, like this:

This arrangement also allowed the x-axis power feed stops to be mounted on the same plate. It wasn’t long however, before I found that neither were being used, so it was removed and has languished on a shelf in the workshop for 5+ years.

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Nigel’s round tuit list is longer than mine!

I think I’ve still got the slotted strip somewhere in the workshop.

John

 

 

[Martyn CozensParticipant @martyncozens74564]

Hi All. Can I thank everyone who has replied to my plea for advice, especially Steve P and John H for going to the trouble of including photos in their replies. My DRO kit arrived today so next week I’ll have a go at fitting it, now I have benefit of other peoples lateral thinking, so thanks again all.

Martyn C

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