DRO on Sherline Lathe and Mill?

Fairbanks

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Greetings,

I am starting to think about the Sherline lathe and mill for my recently downsized shop. I am wondering if any of you have the DRO system that is (was?) offered by Sherline. From their web site it appears that these units are temporarily unavailable. If you have the Sherline DRO, what do you think of it?

Thanks, Steve
 
Hi Steve,

I recommend it. It's important to understand, though, that the Sherline DRO measures hand wheel rotation only. It does not measure the actual movement of any axis. You must run out the backlash each time you change direction.

I am so used to doing this, I can hardly not do it if I try -- even on my mini-mill with direct reading DROs. It's really a good habit to form.

Much of my Sherline milling is done CNC. Even then, I home the DRO to the part program origin. This gives me a check on lost steps, and a means of returning to the origin if it's lost to the CNC controller through a programming error.

I have the DRO encoders on my lathe and mill -- switch the leads and use the same read out box for both.

David Clark in Southern Maryland, USA
 
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Hi David,

Thanks for your response, exactly the feedback I was looking for.

Steve
 
Steve,

I have the DRO setup on my 2000 mill and i like it alot. Along with what David was saying, it is easy to stop and note where your at on a part if you need to back out and start again. I really want one for my lathe also.

Paul
 
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