# Needing Dro Digital Readout Advice For Clausing 1500 Lathe



## gr8legs (Apr 22, 2016)

Hi all -

I'm thinking I need a DRO for the lathe. What that means is 1: I don't have a DRO on it yet and 2: I have some cash available.

I'm not sure how I will mount the scales to the lathe, and I'm not sure which of the scale technologies would be best and which vendor provides the best service and all that jazz. I've seen dropros on eBay and they seem to have good feedback but which of their offerings would be optimal for my machine?

If someone or two of you have already gone down this road I'd love to hear your advice!

Opening the discussion and standing back 

Stu


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## NCjeeper (Apr 22, 2016)

I went with TpacTools for both DRO's for my mill and lathe. I have been very pleased with them. You get a fair amount of brackets in the kits for installation. You may have to modify or make a bracket depending on your scale mounting locations.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DRO-2-AXIS-...794478?hash=item4d249daaee:g:6UkAAOSwQItUGvQg
Here are acouple of mounting pics on my lathe.


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## Wreck™Wreck (Apr 22, 2016)

At the shop where I work the manual machines have Accu-Rite dro's, these seem bulletproof even with hard use and neglect.


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## BGHansen (Apr 22, 2016)

I have a TPAC tools 4-axis on my Jet vertical mill.  Been very pleased with it.  The unit is made by mTech.  My scales are glass and are the 5 micron (0.0002") resolution scales.  There are other technologies out there, most for more, some for less.  I can only vouch for my set up which has served me well.

Bruce


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## RIMSPOKE (Apr 22, 2016)

I GOT A DRO-PROS KIT FOR MY LATHE . ( $960 ) 
THIS USES MAGNETIC SCALES THAT CAN BE CUT TO LENGTH 
AND A DISPLAY UNIT THAT IS PACKED WITH FEATURES . 

I MADE MY OWN BRACKETRY & DIDN'T USE ANY THAT WERE SUPPLIED WITH THE KIT . 
I THINK IT TURNED OUT WELL , ESPECIALLY THE DRAG CHAIN SETUP FOR NEAT & OUT OF SIGHT CABLE ROUTING . 

THE DRO HAS TO BE ONE OF THE BEST UPGRADES . IT MAKES AN OLD LATHE INTO TWICE THE MACHINE THAT IT WAS .


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## mksj (Apr 22, 2016)

Might help to clarify budget and what you are looking for. The DRO Pro stuff is very nice, but one pays a premium for the magnetic scale packages. I have an Easson ES-12 on my lathe, an Acu-rite on the mill both with glass scales, very pleased with both units. I think you can't go wrong with any of them, just pick your price point and see what is available. My suggestion would be to go with a US purchased system, so if there are any issues you have some recourse and support. My Easson is from QMT, the Acu-rite was Enco. At this point for the price of the Acu-rite, I would also look at the DRO Pros units. Magnetic scales may be a bit more compact, but they are not as bullet proof as they lead you to believe, chips and alignment issues can give reading errors.


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## astroracer (Apr 22, 2016)

I have the Tpac Tools DRO on my Frankenmill, less then 400 bucks and it made the machine a joy to use.
 I also have a couple of 9 x 14 lathes, a Smithy combo and Jet. I picked up a couple of these small digital readouts from Micro-Mark.
http://www.micromark.com/remote-digital-readout-12-inch-capacity,9900.html
 I haven't installed them yet but building a couple of small brackets to hang on the back of the cross-slide, is about as difficult as it will get.
Micro-Mark also has a couple of "higher end" readouts.
http://www.micromark.com/absolute-d...out-12-inch-capacity-high-accuracy,11645.html
 These aren't big dollar professional readouts but they also didn't break the bank. If they work, great, money well spent, if not, oh well, we'll still eat tonight. 
Mark


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## Happycamper (Apr 22, 2016)

And I bought the glass 3axis kit for my mill from the DRO Store. What I looked at was the scales from DRO Pro and it appears they are the same chinese scales As the ones I paid 500 for from DRO Store and received them in 3 days time. On two of my lathes I installed the accuremote stainless steel scales and they work great. I've been looking at Yuri's site and thinking about doing the tablet thing using the accuremote scales and senders and an android tablet. Either that or buying a display unit from the DRO Store for the lathes.


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## astjp2 (Apr 25, 2016)

I am a tool snob, so I went with a Newall, I also have the parts for an Acu Rite setup.  You have a nice enough lathe that putting a good name brand DRO would help you sell it later.  Tim


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## Micke S (Apr 25, 2016)

I have DRO's on two of my lathes and find them to be very helpful. I'm  not an experienced machinist and this is probably a big factor why a DRO is so helpful for me. I work in Metrics and the dials on the biggest lathe are Imperial. This is quite difficult to handle when work piece dimensions, tolerances, calipers and micrometers are Metric. The DRO can be selected for Metric and Imperial readings, and is almost a must for this lathe.

Since the lathe is relatively big for a small garage shop, and there is a lot on space on the lathe, I also mounted a scale on the top feed and use a 3-axis DRO. So I'm very pleased with the DRO functionality, and also on a Metric lathe that I have.

I use glass scales and haven't had any problems with them.

There a a few pics on page 3 in this thread. http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/mickes-vintage-munktell-lathe.32889/page-3


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## Eddyde (Apr 25, 2016)

I haven't done my lathe yet but I recently installed a DRO on my Mill. I purchased a Easson unit it from this store on Ali Express:
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/1021179?spm=2114.10010108.0.35.XiDVbW
The transaction went very smooth, the DRO arrived a week after I ordered it and communication with the seller was excellent. I saved a few hundred dollars about 35% off the Dro Pros price. All in all I'm very happy.


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## British Steel (Apr 27, 2016)

DROs are brilliant things, saving my pennies for them at the moment (after I save enough to buy myself a mill, anyway!) - I've done quite a few installs of Easson and Sino, both are pretty good quality for the money and have useful features (like calculating tapers for you).
There are slim scales available (in the shorter lengths) which can be good where space is tight (often the cross-slide needs the slim scale to avoid it poking up above the top of the table, especially if you have a T-slotted table and do ops with work mounted on it, for the topslide scales space is *always* a  big issue!).
When mounting, the supplied brackets are pretty pants, make up your own mounts with grubscrews at the corners to allow you to get all aligned properly (put a DTI on the carriage and aim for zero runout as you traverse, good-enuff if well below 10 thou").

For now, I have a Trav-A-Dial for Z and gauge trays with micrometer stops... Old Skool!

Dave H. (the other one)


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