About to pull the trigger on a DRO system for my mill. DROstore?

[HoosierBuddy]

Hey guys,

So...it's time to tell the wife what I want for Christmas, and I'm going to try to sort-of push the envelope and ask for a digital readout for my old Millrite vertical milling machine (8X30X6). Does anyone have any experience with the DROstore and/or this unit:

http://www.meisterdro.com/servlet/the-32/Meister-BOLTS3-Digital-readout/Detail

This mill is just a hobby mill I've been using for various metalworking projects....more to learn how make things than for any other purpose. Had it for about 2 years now and ready to "take the next step."

Thoughts?

Phil

 

[HoosierBuddy]

An update on this:

So...the reason the DRO Store is $100 less than some of the other "cheap" DRO suppliers is they are located in Singapore, and are buying this stuff further up the food chain.

I did go ahead and order their Meister 3 Axis kit with the right sized glass scales for my milling machine. It came in yesterday after some issues trying to make it through U.S. Customs (invoice was not clear on contents of boxes), that held it up by about 10 days.

I unboxed it all, and it looks pretty good. It was all well packed and seems to be just what I need. I strung it all out on my dining room table, plugged the armored cables into the back of the readout box, and turned it on. Everything seemed to be working as expected.

The next step will be to take it out to the garage and get it all mounted to the Millrite 8x30 knee mill and make some chips.

So...if anyone else is considering the DRO Store...just keep in mind it's coming directly from China. If your looking in this set of "cheapest" digital readout solutions...they all come from offshore. If you're willing to pay a hundred more, you can get it from a U.S. importer so you won't have to fight Customs.

Phil

 

[383 240z]

I keep telling myself that I'm buying a DRO. I've been looking that the ones from CDCO TOOLS http://www.cdcotools.com/ Best price I've found, I've bought from Lee at CDCO more than a few times, so far the service and shipping has been pretty good and consistent. Plus he ships from the US. I get my stuff in 2-3 days with regular UPS. Keith

 

[lametec]

I pieced together the DROs for my mill and lathe by buying the parts off ebay when I came across them for cheap. My setup consists of Anilam and Mitutoyo scales, Anilam display on the mill and Acu-Rite display on the lathe.

In my case, the Acu-Rite Master TP 2-axis display ($60) was listed as parts/not working because it showed an E1 error when powered up. If the seller had bothered to read the manual, he'd have known that this is the "power loss" code, and will come up any time the power has been turned off.

The Anilam Wizard 450 3-axis ($125) display was listed as parts/not working as well, since the keypad didn't work. Turns out the pad itself was shorting out inside (when warmed up, worked fine when cold). I built my own keypad out of push button switches for next to nothing. It looks and works as it should, since there's a mylar (plastic) front panel that covers the buttons.

The two Mitutoyo 5µm scales I got for $90 because they weren't too long for your typical mill. No problem for me, since I used the longest one as-is for the lathe, and I cut the shorter one down for the mill.

I got a couple of the Anilam 5µm scales for $130. Another 5µm Mitutoyo scale for $25. Can't remember what I paid for the last scale, but it wasn't much (it's a short one for the quill on the mill, 10µm).

So for less than $500 I equipped both my mill and lathe with DROs that read to 0.0002".

Not for everyone, but I figure if you have machine tools, it's because you like to make or modify things.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

I pieced together the DROs for my mill and lathe by buying the parts off ebay when I came across them for cheap. My setup consists of Anilam and Mitutoyo scales, Anilam display on the mill and Acu-Rite display on the lathe.

In my case, the Acu-Rite Master TP 3-axis display ($60) was listed as parts/not working because it showed an E1 error when powered up. If the seller had bothered to read the manual, he'd have known that this is the "power loss" code, and will come up any time the power has been turned off.

The Anilam Wizard 450 3-axis ($125) display was listed as parts/not working as well, since the keypad didn't work. Turns out the pad itself was shorting out inside (when warmed up, worked fine when cold). I built my own keypad out of push button switches for next to nothing. It looks and works as it should, since there's a mylar (plastic) front panel that covers the buttons.

The two Mitutoyo 5µm scales I got for $90 because they weren't too long for your typical mill. No problem for me, since I used the longest one as-is for the lathe, and I cut the shorter one down for the mill.

I got a couple of the Anilam 5µm scales for $130. Another 5µm Mitutoyo scale for $25. Can't remember what I paid for the last scale, but it wasn't much (it's a short one for the quill on the mill, 10µm).

So for less than $500 I equipped both my mill and lathe with DROs that read to 0.0002".

Not for everyone, but I figure if you have machine tools, it's because you like to make or modify things.

The Meister kit from DRO store is $580 shipped for 3 axis. It includes your choice of 3 glass scales, the readout box, mounting brackets, and chip shields. The accuracy of any of these kits on an old milling machine like mine is probably not going to be a noticeable component of the inaccuracy of the parts produced. Tool deflections, spindle wear, uneven wear on the ways...any and all will introduce more machining error than the theoretical tolerance of the dro system.

Phil

 

[HoosierBuddy]

I keep telling myself that I'm buying a DRO. I've been looking that the ones from CDCO TOOLS http://www.cdcotools.com/ Best price I've found, I've bought from Lee at CDCO more than a few times, so far the service and shipping has been pretty good and consistent. Plus he ships from the US. I get my stuff in 2-3 days with regular UPS. Keith

Doesn't look like they actually sell a 3-axis kit.

I'd have to let someone else chime in on the cost vs benefit ratio on 2 vs 3 axis DRO setups. Hopefully I'll know more after I get mine up and running. I figured if I was going to do it...I might as well get z-axis as well. It does appear that mounting the scale for the quill will be more work than the rest of the installation. The Millrite has a funky depth scale on the front that doesn't look like it will be useful at all for this project. It has no provision even for a quill stop. I think I'm going to have to fabricate some fairly well engineered bracketry to make this thing work.

Phil

 

[mooseracing]

I think I'm going to have to fabricate some fairly well engineered bracketry to make this thing work.

Phil

Pretty much how all of them go if you don't have a factory setup.

I've been keeping my eye out at Shars, I really like the idea of being able to let it calculate circles and where the holes need to go.

http://www.shars.com/product_categories/view/40602/Digital_Readouts

 

[coyotejake]

Got a DRO Pro on my Rong Fu RF-25. Love it!

 

[Ign]

Couple years ago I ditched the glass scales on my Bridgeport and went w the Mitutoyo digital stuff similar to their calipers. Yes, YES I realize its theoretically not as accurate as glass scales but I 100% agree with the reasoning above: it still far exceeds the tolerances of my old BP or the needs of any manual mill user for that matter.

What I love: absolutely freakin love is how it holds and calculates position whether its off or on. I can turn it off and come back in the morning to the same reading. I can crank or bump handles while its off and it still knows where I am.

I went this route 'cause I was getting plastic flakes in my glass scales and couldn't find replacement seals, nor did the existing seals look cracked, fatigued or otherwise bad. It only took trashing a couple of pieces worth over a couple hundred $ each plus wasting my time repeatedly removing the scale and meticulously cleaning it for a $1k DRO package to look like a bargain.

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Pretty much how all of them go if you don't have a factory setup.

I've been keeping my eye out at Shars, I really like the idea of being able to let it calculate circles and where the holes need to go.

http://www.shars.com/product_categories/view/40602/Digital_Readouts

The meister kit I got does all that too. Not just bolt circles, but you can program evenly spaced holes (even angled evenly spaced holes) or radii. For a radius, you program tell it the axis orientation, the starting and end angles, the radius, and the number of cuts you want to take and it will step you into all of the starting positions to take each cut. Obviously, you don't end up with a radius, you end up with a series of stepped cuts that approximates the radius....then you have to use another technique to blend it all. In theory it should really expand the capabilities of the milling machine.

My goal with my mill and lathe is to have the tooling, equipment and know how to be able to make anything I can draw. Right now....I'm not even close. But I'm working that way!

Phil

 

[HoosierBuddy]

Another (and final) update. I had some use/lose vacation at the end of the year and I spent some of it beginning the installation of the DRO. It was actually pretty "involved" to mount the scales on the mill. Obviously the old Millrite had no provisions for this sort of thing. The long axis (side to side) was easiest. I had to drill some mounting holes and make some shims and a small bracket to hold the "reader". The Y-axis (front to back) was harder, as I had to make mounting brackets to mount everything on the mill, and then do everything I had to on the side-to-side.

Mounting the readout itself was super easy. Drill and tap 2 holes and mount it to the included mounting arm.

The z-axis (quill depth) is going to be tough. The millrite has a funky depth gauge on it that has a little pointer that comes out and points at a scale. I'm going to try to adapt that mechanism, by mounting a larger heavier arm suitable to holding the "reader" portion of the scale, along with some brackets for the scale itself. I don't know if it will work or not.

I'll make a new post when I get a chance to work on it with some pictures of the whole setup. It seems like it will be really useful when I get done.

The only real problem I had, other than getting the kit through customs, was an issue with intermittent failure on my x-axis read. I finally figured out that my bolt holes in the table that held the scale were slightly too close together and it was causing the scale to bow upward so that the reader got too far away from the scale to reliably read it near the middle of the table travel side-to-side. The gap was fine if the table was at either end of travel, but too wide if the table was centered under the quill. I put the bolts on my lathe and relieved the OD slightly and that fixed that, by eliminating the interference bowing the scale. Easy fix once I figured it out. The scale to reader gap is really touchy, and if it's off the readout freezes. I'm 99% sure I have it fixed and everything seems to be working fine.

Good times.

Phil