Using just the handwheels (vs a DRO)

mickri said:
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.
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What brand of mill/drill has dials you cannot zero ?
 
Doing the rough layout on the part is a good practice and helps in other cases than just losing count of revolutions. I have a DRO now, but I do recall having one part with lots of revolutions between features that I couldn't (or just didn't think to) do the layout on and I resorted to a cup with the right number of washers in it. At every revolution I took one out of the cup and put it in my pocket.
 
Mine is an Excel EC30b. Franklin Ward and Buffalo mill/drills don't have zero dials. Not sure about Rutland. I have often thought about making zero dials for my Excel.
 
mickri said:
Mine is an Excel EC30b. Franklin Ward and Buffalo mill/drills don't have zero dials. Not sure about Rutland. I have often thought about making zero dials for my Excel.
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Did not know this, even my cheesy Grizzly mill/drill has zeroable dials......
 
BiggerNoise said:
The stock wheels on a Sherline cannot be zero'd. I'm torn between buying the zero handwheels or the DRO.
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I took delivery of a Sherline mill a few weeks ago. My CNC-ready model came with the zero-able handwheels. I adapted the mill to install the wheels without steppers for the moment so I could get a feel for using it manually first.

But what DRO system could fit this teeny-tiny mill?

Edit: Oh, you mean Sherline's DRO system? I would not recommend that. It measures the wheel's motion only, not the true position of the x-y stage. That means it knows nothing about the backlash of the system, and hence small errors will creep in at random, at least unless you maintain backlash discipline yourself. That's harder to do on a mill than on a lathe, and doing away with that need is a main point of a DRO on a mill. Hence, I don't think Sherline's solution is good enough.
 
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A few years ago I bought some tools from my wife’s uncle , retired from almost 50 years in a tool &die shop . The toolbox had what I thought were mic standards and mentioned to him that I don’t have mics 10-12” . He said ” you know those are measuring sticks “ so not to embarrass my sell I said “ Oh yea “ big mistake I should have asked how he used them . I have done some searching they seem like they were used mostly on jig borers but there was some mention to lathes and mills . I haven’t used them but this thread had brought them back to a second thought . I count rotations but it’s a pain for larger moves . Maybe something could made using a fixed stop and say a indicator or mic barrel , similar to a carriage stop on a lathe , the rods would be used between. If anyone has more info on them or some suggestions on setting them up maybe another thread would be more appropriate? Also I did find they made what looked like inside mics so the rods would be adjustable.
 
/\/\/\ Jig bore rods :encourage: Darn near identical to inside mics and used on the old jig boring machines .
 
Being old school , I always install and use trav-a-dials on any lathe I ever have vs. DROs . This may be a cheaper or easier alternative for the OP although good trav-a- dials are not cheap anymore .
 
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