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DRO questions
NickG:
Jason,
I had the same dilemma - I was going to go with the sliding cheapo chinese type scales but have been put off, batteries, swarf, oil ingress etc and they just aren't as accurate. So I've saved (no, well I haven't spent money) up for the glass scales and a DRO like the one in your first link.
Nick
tumutbound:
I have a DRO-350 with DPU-550 installed on my X2 mill.
Scales are the low cost Chinese ones, in my case from Shars.
I modified the scales to remove the batteries and most of the unnecessary components
FWIW, the Shumatech group has a post about a new run of DRO-550s now that the processors are available.
j45on:
Cheers for all your input guys :beer:
Mmmm decisions decisions :scratch:
I'm going to think about this a bit more and do some more homework and have a good measure of my mill
work out some costs and pros and cons ect ect
kwackers:
I ran a 30 inch and 8 inch Chinese scale on my lathe for around 5 years with my 350 and it worked a treat.
I made covers for both and for the saddle made a 'U' shaped bracket to drive the head so that swarf and crap couldn't find it's way onto it.
Never had any problems (left the original batteries in too).
However I didn't use coolant (other than 'brushed on') so can't say how well they'd hold up but whatever the scale you need to protect it against ingress of coolant and swarf.
When I replaced my lathe I moved to glass scales. They're definitely 'better', no jitter etc. For my cross slide I used a magnetic scale which is excellent since it doesn't steal space. I'm thinking about replacing the X axis on my mill with a magnetic one, mainly because it would fit inside the casting of the bed and so I'd lose no Y movement, at the moment I lose around 1 inch with a slimline glass scale (and cover).
However using the 550 means I have a cheap Chinese scale on the quill which can be set to sum with the Z axis.
The 550 also includes edge detection and RPM reading (with suitable sensors), if you include the LCD unit it has a memory card slot which should in future be able to take a file with a list of points or operations - ideal for drilling loco side frames etc. This is work in progress though, I've been doing some stuff on it but currently am stuck for time. Not sure what other work is under way.
HS93:
--- Quote from: kwackers on February 19, 2011, 05:34:49 AM ---I ran a 30 inch and 8 inch Chinese scale on my lathe for around 5 years with my 350 and it worked a treat.
I made covers for both and for the saddle made a 'U' shaped bracket to drive the head so that swarf and crap couldn't find it's way onto it.
Never had any problems (left the original batteries in too).
However I didn't use coolant (other than 'brushed on') so can't say how well they'd hold up but whatever the scale you need to protect it against ingress of coolant and swarf.
When I replaced my lathe I moved to glass scales. They're definitely 'better', no jitter etc. For my cross slide I used a magnetic scale which is excellent since it doesn't steal space. I'm thinking about replacing the X axis on my mill with a magnetic one, mainly because it would fit inside the casting of the bed and so I'd lose no Y movement, at the moment I lose around 1 inch with a slimline glass scale (and cover).
However using the 550 means I have a cheap Chinese scale on the quill which can be set to sum with the Z axis.
The 550 also includes edge detection and RPM reading (with suitable sensors), if you include the LCD unit it has a memory card slot which should in future be able to take a file with a list of points or operations - ideal for drilling loco side frames etc. This is work in progress though, I've been doing some stuff on it but currently am stuck for time. Not sure what other work is under way.
--- End quote ---
as you have used them does swarf stick to the slides as they are magnetic? or are they very weak and cause no problemss
thanks
peter
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