DRO questions

[cdhknives]

Bill S, you don't have issues with snagging things placed behind your lathe? I have a clamp on light but that can move...I had thought about hanging it out there but figured the overhang would be more of a problem. I had not thought of the tailstock crash issue...but I can see it especially when turning away from the spindle under leadscrew power...or when I'm in a hurry

 

[bill stupak]

Bill S, you don't have issues with snagging things placed behind your lathe? I have a clamp on light but that can move...I had thought about hanging it out there but figured the overhang would be more of a problem. I had not thought of the tailstock crash issue...but I can see it especially when turning away from the spindle under leadscrew power...or when I'm in a hurry

No snags, I've got one of these thingies.

 

[roadie33]

Mine is a 10" with AXA size QCTP. I turned a mount for the compound to match the top of the cross slide, drilled and tapped a spot on the A11 slide, and mounted it. The only problem was stopping rotation as the single bolt was not enough. I also built a slotted nut similar to the one made for the QCTP so I can move it around if desired, and on that one I milled the bottom of the mount to fit the t-slots to prevent rotation...and this is the setup I use now. The biggest thing I miss is the angle scale on the standard cross slide..it sure made changing the compound angle much more convenient. I have no issues with tool height.

Any way you can take a pic of the mounting for it?

 

[cdhknives]

 

[roadie33]

Thank you, I never thought of doing it like that.
As for the degree markings, I use a protractor off the chuck face to set mine, mine are hard to read on the base.

 

[coherent]

I've installed simular DRO's on my lathe and am fairly pleased with them. Accuracy is within my needs and no dependability issues as of yet. A lot of folks make some simple cover guards for the appropriate sensors out of sheet metal or plexi which is a nice easy way to avoid damage. I use a few different sizes and lengths of the nylon or plastic wire chain on my CNC machines. The chain can get fairly pricey depending on where you purchase it. I have seen some of the import stuff on both amazon and ebay for reasonable prices... quality isn't as good but would definitely suffice for manual lathe DRO application like these.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

I installed one of those (or similar) to my Atlas 618, putting the scale inside the cross slide between the screw and the screw cover (someone on here did that with this Atlas 10, can't remember his name) with the reader held at the end. Scale is only attached at one end, to the screw cover, but I haven't had any problems with it. I keep chips out by attaching a piece of bike inner tube to the screw cover with a hard drive magnet.

Works well for me and setting zero without having to fish around for a screwdriver is a big plus! The cross slide DRO is an iGaging absolute and the carriage DRO is a standard iGaging unit. Very happy with both of them.

 

[wa5cab]

One solution to the missing compound swivel scale problem on a T-slot cross slide that I think would work on a 12" would be to acquire the original cross slide and compound swivel and slide from a 10". Machine off most of the dovetail from the bottom of the cross slide, leaving some at the zero and 180 degree areas to drop down into the mounting T-slot and prevent rotation of the scale and pintle. The 10" compound slide is an inch lower than the 12".

 

[utterstan]

Schor has done that and now you Matt. So I guess on the 6:18 I can do it too thanks I'll get on that right away

 

[mattthemuppet2]

Schor has done that and now you Matt. So I guess on the 6:18 I can do it too thanks I'll get on that right away

that's the guy, thanks for the reminder! I seem to remember needing to widen the slot that the cross slide screw runs in to make space for the scale, but I don't think it was much. I think a couple of mm at most - it only took one pass on the mill.

I shortened the scale so that it wouldn't hit the back splash.