Fitting a DRO to a Seig X3

[sbwhart]

Look what came through my door this morning:



I ordered it from this firm a few weeks ago at the Midland Model Hexibition.

http://www.machine-dro.co.uk/

I won't get chance to fit it until next week (sons birthday) I'm realy starting to chomp at the bit for some shop time this week, the boss is off for half term and seems to think she's on this earth to organise my time, any way as I was unpacking the DRO she started on about going and getting her mother,  :----------------         

Threw my teddy out of the cot big time.

I'm sleeping in the shop tonight, but at least I'll get some shop time.

 


Stew

[Darren]

Don't OAP's get free bus use down your way ?

[Stilldrillin]

Don't OAP's get free bus use down your way ?

They don`t need it, when their son in law`s got a car....... 

Hope teddy`s ok! 

David D

[bogstandard]

Stew,

If you need help making machined brackets, don't be afraid to ask. I have a goodly few ali plate offcuts if needed, and a load of the ones that come with the units themselves.

It can be a bit difficult sometimes, using the same machine to make the brackets and fit the bits to at the same time.

You will soon be a readout instead of a handwheel watcher.



Be very careful of mother-in-law and wife venom, there is no known antidote, except huge piles of retail therapy cash.


John

[dsquire]

Stew

I feel your pain, I've been there but no longer have to worry about it happening again.

Cheers 

Don

[John Stevenson]

Oooh dear that sounds serious.

My Mother in Law got thrown out of the SS for cruelty.

John S.

[sbwhart]

Hi Chaps Thanks for your simpathy.

Went with the boss to a rock concert at the City of Manchester Areana:----

GREEN DAY         GREEN DAY

Wow the whole city must have been rocking

 

Any way all's been forgotten


I won't be fitting the DRO to later in the week, thanks John I'll certainly take you up on your offer if i get stuck, I need to read the instructions and size the job up.


Cheers

Stew

[DICKEYBIRD]

Threw my teddy out of the cot big time.

Is that the same as "Threw my toys out't pram"?  I work with a few Brits and and am picking up a bit as the years go by.

Looking forward to your DRO install.  I dream of one for my X3.

[chuck foster]

stew : i will be watching this story unfold, a dro is the next thing on my list of purchases 

chuck 

[John Stevenson]

Threw my teddy out of the cot big time.

Is that the same as "Threw my toys out't pram"?  I work with a few Brits and and am picking up a bit as the years go by.

Yes, same as throwing a wobblie and also spitting the dummy out.

.John S.

[Jonny]

Best of luck Stew, i spent all last Christmas putting a 3 axis on mine.
Brackets are the problem if you want it done right. Supplied plates and brackets dont cater for angles i had to make two large brackets one for the quill that doubles up as coolant in and outlet and Y axis bracket to bolt to X axis reaching low down, doubles up as coolant and swarf diverter.

Easy to fit those covers the scales just line up with correct clearance.

Must say i wanted my X axis scale on the front as i didnt want to lose think its 38mm of Y travel. Certain things i use all the time and would have needed to mount outwards at least 2" to clear stops, bed locks, power feed switches and more importantly the dividing plates.

[cedge]

Stew
Typically the instructions show the X scale mounted flat against the edge of the table. I've found that spacing it off a bit makes things work better. You still have a nice clear face for aligning setups and the swarf can fall through without building up on the scale. I spaced mine out such that it misses the column by about .125 inches when the table is cranked in all the way.

Steve

[sbwhart]

Steve/Jonny

Thanks for the advice, back from our sons so will make a start today.

Cheers
 
Stew

[sbwhart]

Today I just stripped the mil down and tried to work out best way to fit the scales.

You need to find the centre of travel of your mill to mount the scale.

Mark the two extremities onto the knee of the mill





Half way between these marks is the half way point to mount the centre of your scale




Extend the mark over the table to where the scale is to mounted. I removed the x, y tables so I could see what I was doing.





Wouldn't you know it as John had said the hole needs to be drilled close to the coolant drain hole 


I'll have a good think about this

Stew

[sbwhart]

Here we go again

One thing I had to do was to drill into my mill I was getting a bit worried about this, I took bits of the mill round to Johns and went through it with him and he gave me some good pointers.

One thing that he did point out was I was using what they call standard glass scales, which are quite a bit thicker that the slim line type that you can get these would have made the job easyer, but they cost more.



Drilling the table:- Because one of the holes would be close to the coolant drain hole, I positioned this hole 20mm away and will use a spacer to regain position.



These are the spacers they were made from the same block of ally, so they will be the same thickness, the smaller spacer on the right is for the other end of the table.



This is how they fit



The reader I mounted on an angle bracket mounted on the underside of the slide.



A spacer was required between this angle bracket and the reader, as it was awkward to get in I measured the distance with a pair of callipers measures the callipers and made the spacer to that thickness.





A couple of slotted holes completed the spacer.



Her it is in place




The glass scale was leveled up.



Thats it in place




Thats the Y axis done.

For the X axis  two hole were drilled and tapped M5 in the machine base.



And a angle bracket to take the glass scale fastened to the machine, the upper two cap screws are for jacking the bracket level, I used the digi level to get things near.



To mount the the reader a slotted plate was fixed to the slide with M5 cap screws.




These are the two brackets in place to fix the scales and reader.



The scales were leveled up.



And thats it Job done



Plugged in



Once I got over my fear of drilling into the machine it was all quite straight forward.

Have fun

Stew










 

[bogstandard]

Nice one Stew. I thought you were fitting a three axis, not two?

Now is the time you look up to put a cut on, not down.


John

[NickG]

Nice 1 Stew, you'll have to let us know how it goes. After reading recent posts I may go for one of these proper systems myself. Not sure whether I'd put a z axis one on too, mine has the spindle sliding digi scale too so wouldn't really need it. I'd want one for the lathe too then. But what do you do, 2 or 3 axis, would be good to have one on top slide like bogs does or 1 on the tailstock.

Nick

[Davo J]

Nice job Stew , It seems you have lost a lot of Y axis travel, Is there any way of thinning the X axis brackets down so you don’t loose as much travel? I am refitting mine to the front (factory fitted to the rear) although I have 270mm of travel I don’t want to give up any.
Dave

[NickG]

I doubt losing that 50mm travel will affect you much to be honest Stew. It's a pretty big machine to start with.

Nick

[bogstandard]

Nick,

I went a little overboard on the lathe, but that was due to wanting to speed up production and accuracy, which it really did. But on the mill, I feel that you should have four axis readout. The quill axis one is only used for drilling depth, so that can be done with a cheapo.

A large amount of people use the quill for putting on a cut, which to me is wrong. The quill should be used for drilling only. On a mill/drill, it has to be done that way, but on most others, it should not really be done.

Only if you can guarantee that the head is in perfect tram should the quill be used, as even a tiny bit out, you are not only moving the cutting point in the Z axis, but also in the X. You will also be losing rigidity the more you have the quill extending.

Think about it.


John

[NickG]

John,

What you just said is one of the main reasons I bought a dovetail column mill. I always thought it would be much better putting the cut on with the spindle fully retracted, howver, because of the quill DRO and the fact that the z axis handwheel on mine is way up at the top, I have been putting the cuts on with the quill. You're right, I thought about the rigidity but not about it moving in the X. I shouldn't be and will stop doing that. I guess I was just doing it because it was convenient.

On your lathe then, do you clock the top slide parallel and use that for measuring depth of cuts on small parts? I'm just thinking it's much easier to control than with the rack and pinion handwheel. Or do you find it's ok with using the apron handwheel?

Nick

[bogstandard]

Nick,

I clock the topslide up fairly regularly, so that when working close in to the chuck, or for very fine movements, the saddle is locked up and the topslide is used for putting on a X axis cut.

But you must ensure that it is running true to the bed, otherwise you can end up with all sorts of unwanted results.

I have a dedicated lathe DTI that sits on the shelf above the headstock, just so that I can pop it on the lathe and check something within a couple of seconds. That is a very good habit to get into, especially if you are doing a bit of heavy cutting, things can easily get knocked out of wack.


John

[Davo J]

Stew,
 That looks to be a Miester DRO head without the name and Sino scales which have a good reputation. I don't think you will have any trouble with it as mine is still going strong with no troubles after 3 years. I see you don't have scale cover on. Are you going to put come on? As they will get chips and dust in them, especially the Y axis as it's on its side.
Nick G,
Correct me if I am wrong but after a quick Google search on the sieg X3 I see it's got 150mm standard minus 50mm that’s only 100mm travel which is a third less.
John,
A quill scale is also good for boring to depth. I had 4 scales fitted to my machine (quill and knee), that I had to take off before it went back. The only trouble was I bought it before Miester brought out their Magna 4 DRO so I had to unplug one to plug in the other. Now that I have received the new mill it came with a Sino 3 axis DRO. So now with the 2 sets, I can now combine the quill and the knee and maybe the Y axis and the ram don’t know yet. I have got the wiring diagrams off them to wire Sino and mitutoyo scales to the Miester and vice versa if they need be changed over, as I picked up a few mitutoyo scales locally on eBay also. They also sell a rotary encoder models but don't think the resolution would be fine enough for putting inside the head and turret for traming. Maybe the way things will go in the future?
Dave.

[bogstandard]

Dave,

I have a 3 axis Sino on the mill, but for the rare occasions I do use the quill, I put a cheapo on there, linked to a small readout, all powered from a tranformer, batteries not included (or required), just a cap across the battery terminals in the read head.

Because I don't have powered downfeed on my mill, I used the Z power feed for boring or large drilling. I don't have the power or control in my right arm for doing it manually.


Bogs

[sbwhart]

Stew,
 That looks to be a Miester DRO head without the name and Sino scales which have a good reputation. I don't think you will have any trouble with it as mine is still going strong with no troubles after 3 years. I see you don't have scale cover on. Are you going to put come on? As they will get chips and dust in them, especially the Y axis as it's on its side.

I've got the covers fitted I left them off for the photos so the machine interfaces can be seen, a good point about keeping the chips and coolant out.

Thanks for your replies and interest chaps

Stew