DRO for a Jet 10x24 ?

kvt

kvt

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I am looking to put a simple DRO on my Jet 10x24PY, I have been looking at the IGAGING 24 inch DROs, they have several from the normal Igaging magnetic, to the Stainless steel version, Seems both have about the same accuracy ratings. But Is there any significant difference to one over the other as the stainless version is often listed about twice the cost for a 24 in travel.
know there are better out there but price is a major factor, Have also been looking at the ones from Bangood as well, they seem to be a bit cheaper but not sure of the quality warranty etc.
Any comments suggestions or other, Please
 
I had a couple of igaging dros on my X2 mill. For a few months, they were the greatest thing I ever did to that machine. Then issues started up. My X axis started jumping around. It would be sitting there reading 2.500" as I am turning slowly, then jump to 14" (random numbers here, the numbers I saw were always random) then maybe to 2.9", then -38". New battery didn't help. Unplugging every other electrical device in the shop didn't help. Changing the cord for something sealed didn't help either. Switching the displays, it stayed with the scale. It also wasn't consistent in its errors. I could go 2 or 3 days without an issue, then it might pop back up for 5 straight days. Didn't seem to be related to travel distance either. If I repositioned .25", it would jump sometimes. If I went from one end of the table to the other, it would make it fine sometimes and not make it other times.

Then after a few months, the displays would no longer stick to their holders. They would randomly pop out of their holders and fall. I eventually took them off when the displays started acting up. I had this issue with all 3 of them where sometimes they would turn on, sometimes they wouldn't. The battery wasn't the issue as I swapped them out with fresh store bought batteries (not the several extras that come with it).

I also noticed that the 2 longer ones both arrived bent (in different places) and had to be straightened out.

All in all, they were fantastic, but they didn't hold up to light use (maybe used 2 times a week, never more then 3 hours at a time). If I were to do it again, I would look at something nicer.

I had ones similar to these: https://www.amazon.com/Remote-Digit...F8&qid=1506621511&sr=8-5&keywords=igaging+dro
 
Take a look at http://www.yuriystoys.com/ Even if you are not interested in the TouchDRO stuff in some of his older comments he talked about the accuracy etc. of different scales. I use TouchDRO on my lathe and mill and share one tablet between them and have been pretty satisfied based on the cost vs remembering dial turns and all that fun. No backlash to account for is also nice. If you aren't making aerospace spec parts the iGaging scales are pretty decent given the cost/resolution and if you add the TouchDRO on top of that you have a fairly decent setup. One thing though there are plenty of Chinese DRO's out there for pretty low money.
 
I have a PM glass scale DRO on my 1640 with .0001 read outs, I can easily dial in 2 tenths on either axis. Easy to install, very repeatable, $400. I ran tests on full travel. 20 full length passes, return error was not measurable with a tenth reading indicator, pretty good stuff for not much money in my opinion. Matt at Precision Matthews is very good to work with. I recently made several custom dimension shoulder bolts, my dimensions were within 2 tenths on all the bolts, I was surprised how easy it was to hold tight tolerances with the DRO. They are in a whole different league than the igaging stuff.

Michael
 
OK, Is there any advantage to the Stainless steel over the standard magnetic ones. Are not the stainless ones also still run by a magnetic strip, Ken
 
I installed Yuriy'sTouch DRO system using the iGaging DRO's on my 10 x 22. I did this largely because if would have been difficult to install glass scales on the cross feed. Rather than use the OEM readouts, I opted for the Android screen. It put all three axes (I also have a readout on the tailstock) on a single screen and the TouchDRO readout had additional features not found on the OEM readouts. For the readout, I used my smart phone and would bring it down to the lathe when I was using it. About a year ago, the battery in my phone died and I got a new phone so the old smart phone took up permanent residence at the lathe, plugged into its charger for power. If I had desired a larger readout, an Android tablet could be purchased on eBay for less than $50.

The only problem that I have had with the system is that electrical noise from the lathe motor stopping would sometimes cause the readout to jump. I tried using EMI filters on the power lines for the lathe and the readout which reduced the interference but didn't eliminate it. Running on a 12 volt battery would solve the problem but the final solution was to power the readout from a different mains circuit. It's been stable ever since.

Here is the writeup on my installation.
 
kvt said:
OK, Is there any advantage to the Stainless steel over the standard magnetic ones. Are not the stainless ones also still run by a magnetic strip, Ken
Click to expand...
iGaging aluminum and the stainless Absolute scales both use capacitive sensing, as I recall. The magnetic in the ad copy refers to the magnets on the back of the readout which allows you to stick the readout to anything steel. They both use 10 micron scales, resolving to .0004"

Magnetic scales use magnetic sensing and have higher resolution, 5 micron or 1 micron.
 
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