# Dropping big money!



## astjp2 (Dec 27, 2014)

So I decided to get the best DRO I could afford, Picked up a Newall DP900.  It was on ebay locally so I wound up paying sales tax but I felt that it is a wise investment for $1335.  I thought about getting a cheaper one but the ease of installation that the Newall has and its simplistic design sold me on buying it, I think its the best choice for my Rockwell lathe.  We have a Hardinge lathe at work with an Acur-Rite DRO and its dead on, so this was the best I could afford and it was the correct one for my late.  Now I just need to finish rebuilding and scraping it in.  Tim


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## darkzero (Dec 27, 2014)

Very nice! Can't ever go wrong getting a Newall.


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## astjp2 (Dec 27, 2014)

I thought the z was a 5um, it wound up being 10um so it should still hold .001 consistently.  From what I can tell, the DP900 was replaced by the DP1200, so it maybe obsolete but its still 45 years newer than my lathe.


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## Cheeseking (Dec 27, 2014)

Congrats!  Newalls are great IMO.  I've got an older Newall Topaz DRO on my mill and if only the reader heads were a bit smaller I would have gone that route on the lathe.    I recently had a DP1200 put on our BP at work and the operator really likes it.   The only complaint he had was there were no axis labels next to the numeric displays.  We just printed some out and stuck them on ourselves.
I will be interested to see how you mount the cross slide (x) scale and reader.  Post some pics if you can.


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## astjp2 (Dec 27, 2014)

The cross slide uses a microsyn encoder, its about half the size of the normal encoders.  The tube for it is only 1/4" in diameter and only needs to be mounted on one end.  I hope I am happy with it.  It cost almost as much as I initially paid for the lathe.  Tim


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