# new digital readout for the lathe



## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 8, 2014)

not sure if this is worth a thread on its own, but it's going to take long enough so hopefully this will keep me on it 

One of my digital tire depth gauges that I use for a "DRO" on my lathe went on the fritz, due to either some weird magnetic problem or the cold or something. It's always been a bit of a pain as it's travel is less than the carriage, so I dug up an old digital caliper with an odd -0.15mm error (always reads 0.15mm low from zero, but returns to zero) and begun cutting it up. No pics of the caliper, although I managed to drill through it fine with a HSS drill, which was a surprise.

Here's the band saw cut blank of the read head mount. I started squaring it off to size, but no pics of that yet.



the long thin bit on the right will bolt just under the carriage leadscrew (it's an odd jeweller type lathe where the whole kit'n'kaboodle is moved up and down the ways and bolted down), the fat bit on the left will hold the read head.

Not sure how much I'll get done this week as I have 2 lectures and an exam to prepare, but after that things should be a bit easier!


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 10, 2014)

quick update, got the reader mount milled to shape, but ran out of time last night to drill the mounting slots. Shouldn't take too long though, then it's onto the front (scale) mount


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 31, 2014)

3 weeks to finish something is a record even for me, but in my defense i had finals to grade

this to make



then this



and also a wire frame paper mache dragon with my daughter for an art fair thing (1st coat of paint today, yay!).

Anyway, at risk of frostbite to my extremities (picking up steel tools at 15F is not fun), I finally finished the brackets and mounted the readout.

Bracket one



bracket two, with pencilCAM drawings - 2nd pic shows the slight taper needed to match the top of the compound




installed! 4in of buttery smooth travel! It doesn't remember its reading when it turns off, so I'll have to be careful with that, but it's going to be a treat to use the full Z travel and not need to reset my readout halfway through. Yippee! Oh, and it's 3V too, so no cursing 1.5V batteries that die in the cold.




finally, my new digital caliper I got for Christmas. I'm very pleased with it!



time to take a break for machining and make my wife an LED makeup mirror thing. Haven't done any electronics in an age, so it'll make a nice break. Plus I need to make some light bars for the garage, the CFL in there wouldn't even light this evening.


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## chuckorlando (Dec 31, 2014)

Awesome work brother. I love the christmas tree


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## mattthemuppet2 (Dec 31, 2014)

Thanks Chuck! The girls helped make it and the wife loved it!


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