Using just the handwheels (vs a DRO)

BiggerNoise said:
A fair number of folks don't use a DRO, preferring to count revolutions of the hand wheels.
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I doubt how many actually "prefer" doing revolution counting when DRO is available. On my mill, there are linear scales on the X and Y axes so counting is not required but I still need to do some maths because the linear scales are graduated in mm and one full turn of the handwheel is 3 mm so the amount of travel is not simply concatenating the linear scale reading and that of the wheel. The same goes for the tail stock of my lathe. Linear scale in mm and one turn is 1.5 :(

Then I switched to DRO and never looked back.

See if you can stick to the rail a linear scale graduated in number of turns of the handwheel. As it is just for revolution counting, it does not need to be very accurate or precise so making one from scratch should be quite easy.
 
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compact8 said:
I doubt how many actually "prefer" using hand wheels when DRO is available. On my mill, there are linear scales on the X and Y axes so counting is not required but I still need to do some maths because the linear scales are graduated in mm and one full turn of the handwheel is 3 mm so the amount of travel is not simply adding up the linear scale reading and that of the wheel. The same goes for the tail stock of my lathe. Linear scale in mm and one turn is 1.5 :(

Then I switched to DRO and never looked back.

See if you can stick to the rail a linear scale graduated in number of turns of the handwheel. As it is just for revolution counting, it does not need to be very accurate or precise.
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I inherited a lathe and a mill, but ended up buying the larger version of the lathe with a factory DRO. Which has been really, really nice. I have done a few projects with my son-in-law and he lays everything out in metric while my tool is standard and most of my layout is as well. It was very nice to be able to switch the lathe into metric and just work to his plans without having a bunch of goofy converted values on the whiteboard.

I can add a DRO to my mill, but the cost is not insignificant.
 
BiggerNoise said:
A fair number of folks don't use a DRO, preferring to count revolutions of the hand wheels.

I've tried counting each turn out loud, but it seems more often than not I end up off by one count.

What's a good way to keep count of the turns?
If you lose count, how do you re-establish your location?
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I was in that camp up until the summer of 2012. I remember the time well because I had several large projects I needed to get out the door. If you recall it was nearing election time and the political calls were coming in fast and furious. I had no way to knowing who was on the other end until I picked up the handset. More often than not it was someone trying to persuade me to vote one way or another.

I was going from the mill to the phone an average of 50 times a day. On really bad days it was closer to 100. Each time the phone rang I would try to remember to write down where I was and answer the call. Far too many times I forgot to write down the numbers and just answered the phone. When that happened, I had to retrace my steps. It got to be a real PITA and jobs were taking twice as long as they should.

I finally broke down and gave DRO Pros a call. I explained the situation and asked what brand and model they would suggest. I made the purchase and was about to hang up when the gentleman on the other end mentioned the "Added Guarantee". He guaranteed that after November 6th of that year the addition of the DRO would virtually eliminate any political calls suggesting a presidential candidate for 4 years.

The DRO is still working fine, and the "Added Guarantee" did work. I didn't get a single call suggesting a presidential candidate for the next 4 years.
 
One of the few advantages of living in a "no swing whatsoever" state is that I never get one of those calls. :)

Unfortunately, I'm capable of self-distraction, so I lose my count all by myself.
 
In my "youth" I messed up a few projects by thinking I'd zero'd out the handwheel turning CW when it was actually CCW. Also lost count on turns and had to turn back to the starting point and repeat. My solution at the time was to put a hang tag on the handle labeled with the direction and side of part where I'd zero'd (for example, CW LH, CCW RH). That saved me a little time when returning to the project on another day. Also, if I was leaving the project, I'd move the table back to the (0, 0) point.

Second best money I ever spent (wife's engagement ring is #1) was the ~$500 for a 4-axis DRO from TPAC tools. There are cheaper options, but what a game changer. The only problem I've had with my DRO is when my unheated at the time shop got down to under 40 F. The DRO stopped working so I was back to hand wheels. After a day of that the DRO got a heating pad bungee'd to it; no issues after that.

Yes, it's an investment for a DRO. I'd start saving my pennies and make that your next purchase. Better than sliced bread, inside facilities, etc.

Bruce
 
A DRO is not in my future. I don't use my mill/drill enough to warrant the cost of a DRO. I have become accustomed to using the hand wheels on my mill/drill. A learned motor skill.

One thing that really helped me was only using the X axis hand wheel on the left side of the table. Turn the handle to the right (cw) and the table moves to the right. Turn the handle to the left (ccw) and the table moves to the left. I removed the hand wheel on the right side of the table.

On the Y axis the old righty tighty, lefty loosey comes into play. Turn to the right and the table moves in similar to tightening a bolt. Turn to the left and the table moves out similar to loosening a bolt.

Because the dials on mine don't have the zero feature I keep tract of movement by writing everything down on paper.

My methods would never fly in a production shop where time is money. But for me if it takes longer to do something well I get to spend more time in my shop.
 
mickri said:
Because the dials on mine don't have the zero feature I keep tract of movement by writing everything down on paper.
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Kind of hard to imagine how it can be done .....

Although the hand wheels of my mill has got the zero feature, I still couldn't do the math in my head so I need to put together a simple Excel spreadsheet for the purpose.

E.g. X-axis origin set at handwheel reading = 0 , get there by turning the wheel CCW, linear scale reading = 100 mm , one turn of the handwheel is 3 mm. Enter all these into Excel.

If I want to move the spindle to the left by 13.45 mm, ( X = -13.45 ), the Excel formula will tell me that the linear scale should read between 85 and 86 and the handwheel scale 1.55. I also need to make sure that the handwheel gets there by turning in the CCW direction.

Have been doing this for some 20 years before switching to DRO. I use a cheap brand only ( ToAuto ) but it works very well.
 
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It's really rather easy. My X & Y axis move .125 with each revolution. You either add or subtract depending on the direction of movement. If the total is greater than .125 then you subtract .125 to get the reading on the dial. If the total is a negative number then you add .125 to get the reading on the dial.

For example. If the reading on the dial is say .033 and you need to move to the left .055 then you add the two ending up with .088. If you need to move .100 the total is .133 which is greater than .125 then you need to subtract .125 which gives you a dial reading of .008. If you are moving to the right .055 then you would subtract leaving a minus .022. In this case you would add .125 which gives you a dial reading of 103. If moving .100 you end up with a minus .067. Add .125 and your dial reading is .058.

Math comes easy to me. Maybe because there were no calculators when I was growing up. You did everything by hand.
 
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