Dro's On Budget For Mill

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Kroll

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Guys the weather is bad here so I am day dreaming about DRO's for a mill.So I pull out my just arrive Grizzly catalog went site seeing.Then I had a heart attack looking at the prices.LOL kidding but it felt like it.Anyway you guys that's been down this road and you have a mill but a limited budget how did you handle this?Either 2 axis or 3???? What's out there that's a good dro on a budget,that's pretty reliable?Any links to websites or just some reading material----Thanks kroll
 
When I built my first ones I got some iGuaging scales at about $40 each then built Touch DRO. The iGuaging prices have went up tho & I can order glass scales cheaper now so I'm getting ready to go that route. I think I had about $200 in a 4 axis system. I didn't count the price of a tablet in that tho since I use my phone.
 
On my first mill I used the accuremote igagaing stainless dros x and Y, and also went with the Yuriys bluetooth read out, I liked it a lot and had a lot of help putting it together not my expertise. sold it for a Bridgeport older mill soon after I did the install and found I can do aliexpress DRO about the same as the igaging stainless one, and I did xyz and no longer would need the larger tablet for the read out. so it is a wash on the price difference. I am very happy with what I have now.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/free...cales/1524501216.html?src=ibdm_d03p0558e02r02
 
There is a wide variety of choices ranging from less than $200 for three axis to several thousand $.

The iGaging type DRO's are fairly economical and work reasonably well. They will give accuracies of around .001 .002" and can be almost plug and play.

I installed one as a 3 axis DRO on a 10 x 22 lathe, also using the Touch DRO for less than $200. Details are given here. http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/another-lathe-dro-install.34106/#post-288084. Ideally, a DRO install will have protective covers over the scales to prevent swarf and lubricant from entering the pickup which will require some additional work.

Next up are the glass scale DRO's. If you want to take a chance on buying from China, you can get a decent DRO for $300 -400. If you prefer the security of buying on shore, DROPros offer a fairly good system. From what I have seen, the glass scale systems use fairly much the same scales. The readouts vary a bit from vendor to vendor as do the prices. The base (5 micron) scales have an accuracy of around .0002" . There are also 1 micron scales available. DROPros sells them for $50 per scale more.

I have installed two of the glass scale DRO's on mills. They both were Grizzly systems and worked well. The older system is still working after 11 years. They appear to be the same as the Easson system from DROPros and very similar to some of the offshore offerings. The main difference is in the readout.

Magnetic scales are also available and are allegedly better than the glass scales. I have no experience with them.
 
I purchased this unit from Aliexpress for $297. Took about 14 days to arrived. Everything in the package looked good. I installed the Y axis scale and no problems. Installed the X scale and got it dialed to .001 over the full travel. I need to make my Z axis scale mounts and decided to use the new to me mill to make them. Hooked up X and Y and X doesn't work. Tried swapping X and Y and Y works fine, but still no X.

I have been in contact with the seller and it's a very frustrating experience. He had my make a video and send to him, then he sent me a video of how to take the scale apart to try and fix it. I don't understand why I need to fix a brand new part. But I'll go give it a try shortly.

I did a live chat with Aliexpress customer service rep and the only option if I file a claim is to return the kit. The seller told me if I did return the kit it would take 6 months to get my money refunded. The seller assures me he will send a new scale to me. The problem is trying to convince him that the scale is bad.

I have 16 days after delivery to file a dispute, and if I don't get a new scale by then I will file one.

My last DRO came from TPAC tools. He was amazing, shipping was just a few days and when I discovered I needed a longer scale he sent it out to me even before he got the other one back. But his price was over $100 more.

So be aware if you do buy from overseas and have a problem be aware it's not very easy to get the problem taken care of. The language difference doesn't help much either.

http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/7187850274.html?orderId=71715097707972
 
Ok, quick update.

I took the scale apart and there is a glass scale that runs down the center, and the reader head has a slot in it. The reader was not positioned correctly, the scale was not in the slot. I put it back together and it works.

I'm glad I don't have to go through the process of returning it and waiting for my money back. But it being assembled incorrectly doesn't say much for their quality control in my opinion. Cost me 2 days of my precious vacation time to get this sorted out.

Now I'm off to the hardware store (again) for fasteners and some material to mount my Z axis scale.

Today I will make the first chips with my "new to me" mill.
 
To the OP: depends on how much you want to spend, how much work you can/want to do and how accurate you want it to be.

For example, for my TH42 Atlas lathe I'm using the android touch DRO program (free), building the launchpad interface with pretty much all eBay bits/parts (~30 bucks), using the cheap "Chinese" vernier caliper heads (~25 bucks for 4), a couple Wixey sensor strips (~30 bucks) and the brackets are all home fabbed (my scrap or cheap drops)

All that will do X,Y and tailstock (also have parts for compound, but don't know if I'm doing that one or not).

Touch DRO will also do RPM, but I have a separate display for that mounted in the control box for my Cycletrol 150 (Baldor 3/4 HP DC motor powered lathe) and the pickup is on the spindle.

I "splurged" an extra 25 bucks on ebay for a dedicated android tablet because I wanted a "permanently installed" display, but I could have just used my 7" nexus tablet had I not wanted to spend the 25 bucks. Heck, an old android touch phone will work, as long as the kernel is 3.0 or better.

Accuracy is only going to be in the 0.001 range, but that's good enough for the work I do.

Although mine is on a lathe, it's pretty much same-same for a mill.

From there, the price only goes up.....
 
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