Anyone have a quill DRO on their 935?

[Pcmaker]

Im sure the 835 has the same exact head as the 935, and more people have the 935, so I wanna know if there's people here who have installed quill DROs on their 935 knee mills? I want to order a 6" quill DRO on Amazon, but haven't decided which one to get yet. How hard is the install?

 

[rogerl]

I have a 935 and I do not feel the need for the quill DRO. If I am drilling a hole that it not important I use the scale that is on the quill. If I have a hole that needs to be precise I use the knee. The crank scale for the knee is .100 per revolution so it is very easy to get to the proper depth.

Just my 2 cents
Roger L

 

[Batmanacw]

Once you get used to the DRO you will soon realize that the quill dro is not all that necessary. It's very easy to set the incremental mode and touch off against the stop and lift the knee to set depth.

 

[davidpbest]

Yes, and I use it every time I use the mill. Makes setting tool height (end mill specifically) super simple: drop the tool to just kiss the material, zero the quill DRO, then move off the part and set your depth with the quill DRO. Also useful in accurately setting the quill depth stop for power down-feeds in boring, counter-boring, etc. Full details of my implementation, along with photos and detailed drawings can be seen here.

I do use the knee DRO for some depth settings, but for most end mill and face mill activities, the shallowness of cut makes dropping and locking the quill more convenient. To each their own.

Any scale-type DRO other than Mitutoyo will eat batteries like crazy. Mitutoyo makes a kit specifically for the J-head which is what I started with, but I didn't like the bracket, and needed to couple my proximity stop used for tapping into the same system. Good pricing on the Mitutoyo kit here.

 

[Pcmaker]

The iGaging tools also don't use much batteries. I have both their caliper and their lever type micrometer. Still on the original batteries after over a year.

The Mitutoyo one is extremely expensive, which is putting me off a bit. Nearly 3x what the iGaging 6" quill DRO costs. I'm leaning towards the iGaging purely because of the cost.

Mitutoyo 053906B, Quill Kit for Bridgeport Type Mills, 0- 6" Travel inch/mm, with Mounting Brackets: Micrometers: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

Mitutoyo 053906B, Quill Kit for Bridgeport Type Mills, 0- 6" Travel inch/mm, with Mounting Brackets: Micrometers: Amazon.com: Industrial & Scientific

www.amazon.com

vs.

Amazon.com

 

[davidpbest]

You get what you pay for. I wouldn't let an iGanging product in my shop if you paid me.

 

[davidpbest]

 

[81husky]

I have a Mitutoyo on my 935, and really like it. I know it’s expensive. I bought an i-gaging for my 1340GT tailstock, and it works, but is very slow to react. The readout is behind where you really are unless you go very slow. Battery life on the Mit is great, not so much on the i-gage.

 

[mksj]

I was waiting for David to chime in, I agree with him, I couldn't imagine milling depths accurately or to a given depth w/o a quill DRO. On my knee, I installed a 4 axis DRO which in one program mode sums the knee and quill. Almost every bench top styles does have a DRO for the quill. I have calipers and other measurement tools from Igaging and Mitutoyo, I find them equally accurate and durable. At a price point I would opt. for the Igaging even if you need to replace the batteries twice a year (although Igaging my caliper goes 2-3 years between battery changes). I will say that the Igaging is the older style, not the Absolute which is what I have used. A bit of a dissappointment as far as the design, but at $62 it is better than not having one.

IP54 Digital Quill Kit - Grizzly Industrial

iGaging Digital Readout (DRO) and Quill Kit Mounting Bracket for Bridgeport Type Mills 6 Travel Inch/mm/Fractions. This Quill Kit comes complete with brackets and scale for Bridgeport type machines. The digital readout scale provide precise vertical linear measurement and positioning for work...

www.grizzly.com

 

[petertha]

Another vote for quill DRO. Maybe it depends on the work you do but I continuously use it. The more holes, the more successive operations & tool changes - for example spot drill, pilot drill, tap a thread, c/bore... typically all have depth components. You can do some of this with knee for sure but its just easy with a settable (zeroing) DRO. When you angle the head as David's pic, the quill DRO comes along for the ride. I have a little ritual, when I set my EM to the work piece & lock the quill, I zero both the quill DRO and knee DRO. If its a longer seession of heavier cuts I keep an eye on the quill if it drifts at all. It shouldn't but it doesn't cost anything & makes me feel good Personally I only use my collar as a depth stop & usually only when I have lots of identical holes to do. Maybe I would be inclined if I had one of those quick position clamp affairs vs spinning it up & down.

On the knee vs quill front, some more points. You can't peck drill very effectively raising the knee, at least I cant. You cant run a tap in & reverse out the way you can holding back pressure on the handle drill press mode. So (for the somewhat brave) power tapping to a blind target depth is another point in favor quill DRO.

I too am a Mitutoyo fan boy. I used most of the kit but it has its quirks & like others did some mods so it was better. Some issues may be related to the Bridgeport/clone itself. There are other posts on this subject. Take your time to get the alignment perfect. I happily ran for a while & then developed a problem. It took me a while to figure out the assembly ingested a well hidden chip of metal. I had a clone on standby but I never ended up running it so cant speak to battery life. If I had a wish for the Mit it would be make the display larger & buttons just a bit bigger.