Inexpensive 3 axis DRO

[brandonicus]

I have my y&z units installed and working nicely, btw. Just trying to determine optimal arrangement for the x.

 

[drs23]

I see several installs that place the x reader in the center of the table, nobody has crushed theirs against the center column?

Yeah, ya lose a little there. Including the cover I lost just under an 1 1/2". I've not missed that travel yet. Not saying it can't happen some day, just that it hasn't yet and it's been there for several months now.

 

[n3480h]

You do lose a little, but so far it hasn't been a problem. I guess the milling I've done so far is not large enough to cause an issue, but it may one day. The largest piece I've done was decking VW case halves, and it still wasn't an issue. Fixturing had to be carefully considered to prevent the case from running into the column. Could not have done this job accurately without a DRO.

Tom

 

[brandonicus]

Wow! I never would have thought these little mills could pull that off!

 

[brandonicus]

Ok, I have mounted the x axis behind the table, offset about 3.5" to the left. Even with this arrangement I lose about .5" of y travel since the aluminum bar contacts the webs on the center column mount - not too bad, considering that I may have never missed losing an inch or so more. I need to take it all back apart as the bracket I fabbed up to mount the reader in the offset position is slightly wrong. Anyway, I'll take some pics at that time.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[brandonicus]

 

[brandonicus]

For y and z I mounted the reader with the included brackets. They started out with a 90 degree bend, I flattened them (gently) with a hammer and presto! Perfect fit! Well, almost perfect. I had to file a flat into a couple of the washers I used for shims underneath the z reader's bracket, so that they wouldn't rub against the center column during travel - you can see in the second photo that it is fairly close. Seems to work just fine. Using a longer bracket would have eliminated this issue, but I didn't want to make another bracket and I had already drilled and tapped the hole in the head casting...

 

[Matthew Gregory]

Is there any reason these scales couldn't be mounted to the mill without drilling? I've got any number of serious adhesives that would be up to the task, and the benefit then is no holes drilled and I could remove them with a bit of carefully applied heat.
Loctite Speedbonder 324 comes to mind... I'd just need to make certain I have index points set up to keep the mounts from moving.

...or am I overthinking this? That would be like me. A lot.

 

[brandonicus]

Is there any reason these scales couldn't be mounted to the mill without drilling? I've got any number of serious adhesives that would be up to the task, and the benefit then is no holes drilled and I could remove them with a bit of carefully applied heat.
Loctite Speedbonder 324 comes to mind... I'd just need to make certain I have index points set up to keep the mounts from moving.

...or am I overthinking this? That would be like me. A lot.

I had to do a bit of fiddling with shims to get everything to line up acceptably, but if you were dealing with reasonably level surfaces, I dont see why it wouldnt work. Or perhaps there is a completely better way to approach this?

 

[brandonicus]

Here is the bracket I made to hold the x reader in its offset position:
This is the aluminum angle that the whole x assembly mounts to:
Here is where the bracket goes, held in place by the lower bellows screws. It has been cleaned up and given a coat of lacquer:
The mounting plate for the readouts:
Rear-view (actually from the front of the machine) of the bracket in place:
The last photo was taken before I removed and modified the bracket (thus the unused slot seen in the previous pics). I moved the reader's position about 3/4" toward the centerline of the table (toward the right in the photo) this allows full x travel without the reader crashing into the end of the track.