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| Digital Readout Question |
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| ibuildstuff4u:
I just broke my 2" dial indicator that I use on my lathe bed to measure the Z axis and am thinking about replacing it with this digital readout. Has any one used something like this on their lathe and will it stand up to chips??? http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-Remote-Digital-Readout-Inch-Metric-Fraction/T23012 Also does anyone know where I can get just the gauge with out the scale? I tried to search the web and found nothing. Thanks for the help! Dale P. |
| Bogstandard:
Now trust me on this one, no matter how much people have had success using them, any sign of swarf or liquid can really chew them up or stop them working. Unless you can make up guards to protect them completely from everything, you will be onto a loser. I struggled for about three years, continually drying off, cleaning out and carrying spares and continually changing batteries, and they were protected as best as could be done, before I took the plunge and went for the more expensive glass scale setups. You would be half way thru a critical job, and the damned things would decide not to work properly. One of the most frustrating times in my engineering career. Save your money and buy yourself a new dial indicator. You can buy readouts for connecting to the normal outputs from digiverns, digimics and cheapo scales, and in the UK cost around 30 pounds. The bottom of this page. http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Measurement/Digital-Readouts I actually still use a scale and readout like shown in the link above, but it is way up on the head of my mill, for measuring quill movement, out of the way of the nasties, and the readout box has been much modified to run from mains power for scale and box, so no more battery changes, and I STILL have trouble with the connection plug between the two units, so when I eventually get too pi**ed off with it, they will get hard wired together. Bogs |
| DMIOM:
Basically, I would just second everything Bogs has said. I had a couple of the "digital scales" on a medium-sized bench mill, but they suffered from swarf or liquid ingress, and the damn plug was not secure (although an inelegant blob of hot melt glue did help). Even on the quill, the plug would eventually loose connection (although I have a Mitu. "Quillstar" which, despite similar appearance, is much more robust but is self-contained). As soon as I could afford it, I refitted my manual mill with glass scales and a Sino display. I do, though, still have a couple of these scales in use - but not for X or Y where they are critical. The main one is on my bigger CNC mill which has 3-axis control but the Z is only the quill. I have added a digital scale and remote readout to the knee, but the scale hides behind a rubber curtain, the plug is glued-in, and the readout is positioned at head-height pretty well out of range of splashes & swarf. Despite remembering (mostly!) to switch off when I have finished with the machine, they do still run out of batteries without warning; but since its main use is when tool-changing, if it stops I am unlikely to actually spoil a workpiece. Dave |
| raynerd:
Got three of these on my mil - http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=1278.0l: Two were from ArcEuro and then one was kindly sold to me very cheap from a friend after one broke after swarf and oil got into it - http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Measurement/Digital-Readouts After that one broke, I put a cover over them and they have been great. Plugged them into a Shumatech (http://www.shumatech.com/) and they give a clear read-out and no longer need batteries as they run on the display power. |
| Ned Ludd:
Hi Dale, I'll second Bogs and Dave, the only good thing about those scales is that they taught me the benefit of having a DRO fitted to my mill. The connections are suspect at best and they are liable to "crash" just at the most critical time. Learn from our mistakes and go straight to a proper system, or buy another DTI and go back to what you had. Ned |
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