Anyone know a good procedure to test a glass slide?

[AlexPeel159]

Getting anomalous readings from one of my ditron glass slides. I might have driven it a few mm past the end. Does anyone know a way to verify if I scrapped it or if its still ok? I have disconnected the sensor from my mill and its still attached to the slide but it seems like it might be not quite attached correctly.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Getting anomalous readings from one of my ditron glass slides. I might have driven it a few mm past the end. Does anyone know a way to verify if I scrapped it or if its still ok? I have disconnected the sensor from my mill and its still attached to the slide but it seems like it might be not quite attached correctly.

A DTI set up to measure the distance and Cycle it back and forth to see if it is reading different each cycle.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Disassemble and inspect.

 

[AlexPeel159]

Disassembled and inspected. The sensor foot is bent on one side but the sensor itself seems fine. It also looks like the last 1/16” to 1/8” broke off the glass slide (those small pieces on the bottom). Thinking as long as I shorten my end stop a bit and can bend the metal foot back it should be good? *Future me here just laughing at my naivety.* Unless the broken glass has compromised the whole track?

 

[AlexPeel159]

So good news bad news. Good news is that I have a new slide on the way. Bad news is when I tried bending the foot back it gave me a hard no and snapped off.

For those of you wondering how I got here. I ordered the slide based of the travel length between my two stops on the X axis. Installed it and it worked fine. Short time later I got myself a power feed unit for the xaxis. I think you can see where this is going. Either I set the power feed limit stops a bit wider then the previous size or I was not accounting for the spring distance in the stops as the old stops were a hard stop and the new stop is a softer stop using a spring.

Moral of this story kids is either order a little extra on the dro length if you have the extra room, or make sure you set your stops appropriately if you have to change them. Remember the slide!

My new slide is 50mm longer than the old version.

 

[ycroosh]

So good news bad news. Good news is that I have a new slide on the way. Bad news is when I tried bending the foot back it gave me a hard no and snapped off.

For those of you wondering how I got here. I ordered the slide based of the travel length between my two stops on the X axis. Installed it and it worked fine. Short time later I got myself a power feed unit for the xaxis. I think you can see where this is going. Either I set the power feed limit stops a bit wider then the previous size or I was not accounting for the spring distance in the stops as the old stops were a hard stop and the new stop is a softer stop using a spring.

Moral of this story kids is either order a little extra on the dro length if you have the extra room, or make sure you set your stops appropriately if you have to change them. Remember the slide!

My new slide is 50mm longer than the old version.

So, as long as you have the scale attached to the machine, that little tab is useless. I have a scale on my mill that I used to learn the same lesson, and it's still working, 4 or 5 years after the incident.

The important bit is on the other side, where the spring attaches. On thing that is weird is that you only gave one spring. The channel with the hole that points to the front of the head usually has another spring connected to it, This way the scale can move a bit, but can't twist much.
In any case, I suspect it still work. Properly destroing glass scales takes some effort.

Regards
Yuriy

 

[RaisedByWolves]

So good news bad news. Good news is that I have a new slide on the way. Bad news is when I tried bending the foot back it gave me a hard no and snapped off.

For those of you wondering how I got here. I ordered the slide based of the travel length between my two stops on the X axis. Installed it and it worked fine. Short time later I got myself a power feed unit for the xaxis. I think you can see where this is going. Either I set the power feed limit stops a bit wider then the previous size or I was not accounting for the spring distance in the stops as the old stops were a hard stop and the new stop is a softer stop using a spring.

Moral of this story kids is either order a little extra on the dro length if you have the extra room, or make sure you set your stops appropriately if you have to change them. Remember the slide!

My new slide is 50mm longer than the old version.

I went through great pains in ordering my scales to get them right and avoid this sort of thing.

I actually wound up shortening my X scale about 3/8” to better fit my mill. I bought it knowing it was too long, but the next size down could have put me in a scale crash situation so the difficult option was best for me.

 

[AlexPeel159]

So, as long as you have the scale attached to the machine, that little tab is useless. I have a scale on my mill that I used to learn the same lesson, and it's still working, 4 or 5 years after the incident.

The important bit is on the other side, where the spring attaches. On thing that is weird is that you only gave one spring. The channel with the hole that points to the front of the head usually has another spring connected to it, This way the scale can move a bit, but can't twist much.
In any case, I suspect it still work. Properly destroing glass scales takes some effort.

Regards
Yuriy

The spring holds the scale roughly in place. The three little wheels (2 on one side, one on the other which cant be seen in the pic but is about the middle of the other two wheels) ride along the glass track to keep it aligned. I opened another and it was the same.

 

[ycroosh]

The spring holds the scale roughly in place. The three little wheels (2 on one side, one on the other which cant be seen in the pic but is about the middle of the other two wheels) ride along the glass track to keep it aligned. I opened another and it was the same.

Interesting. I guess the manufacturer found a way to save another 2 cents . All of the scales I have use two springs, but if it works, it works.
In any case, hope you can still salvage it.

 

[AlexPeel159]

I remember hearing once, dont remember who said it, but at manufacturing electronics parts at scale cost savings is about getting rid of fasteners.