Finally!!!! I got myself motivated and finished up the DRO installation on the SX3. Thinned blood and cool temperatures made for scant motivation, but with the current 72° weather, I finally got her done.
The kit I ordered from Hong Kong actually surpassed my expectations for quality, not only for its fit and finish but the mass of the mounting hardware. This turned out to be a serious bit of kit which came with enough fasteners to do the job at least twice. I did decide to modify the X mount a bit, but the rest of the hardware required no changes for achieving a nice professional install.
With the pre-made brackets, the install was pretty straight forward, even in spite of the valiant effort made to confuse the issue with Chinenglish instructions and poor photos. The photo below shows the Z axis. Note the heavy cast bracket used to secure the reader to the head. It made things much easier than it might have been.
This particular kit took into consideration that there might be a power feed installed and mounted the Y axis scale a bit lower than some I've seen. This proved to be a good move and no clearance or travel problems were encountered. Again.... well thought out brackets and hardware saved a lot of head scratching and fabrication.
The X axis scale was supposed to be mounted flush to the rear of the mill table, but I didn't want to loose the flat edge. I use the edges as datum points when I'm doing some set ups so loosing one was not going to happen if i could avoid it. As it turned out, the posts I had used on the old DRO install were exactly what the doctor ordered. I was able to stand the DRO off the back edge which made placing the reader mounting holes easier than the way the original instructions were indicating.
The display mounting hardware was a case of near rediculous over kill. The swing arm could support several pounds of dead weight..... but don't get me wrong.... I'm certainly not complaining. The display is chocked full of functions, some of which I'm sure I'll never use, but the others are very likely to make things a bit more fun. It was nice to plug the unit in and watch it sequence though its diagnostics and then come up ready to run. No muss.... no fuss and no need to do any setup or calibrations.
I've already taken the time to check the scales with my trusty DTI and they are now within .001 or less of parallel to the line of travel for each axis. The protective plastic travel locks made a perfect spacer gauge so the readers are also right where they were made to travel. I'll be starting an engine project later this month and then I can add my observations on accuracy and such.
Steve
