Been thinking about this Grizzly DRO for my lathe

[Winegrower]

I also have a couple Ditron D80's. They're very readable and the user interface is bad but usable. I'm happy with the features...though I don't use much of anything other than the position itself. Where I'm not fully satisfied is with the X axis magnetic scale...I just can't trust that it's going to read correctly and match up with a cut after the fact. The Z axis has always been acceptable, but i've gone through a couple magnetic strips and an upgrade to 1 um...but still it's just not reliable. The lathe itself is fine, in that the dial movement always corresponds closely to the cut. I'm thinking now that glass scales might be better, since I've seen some localized errors from stray ferrous chips. But the glass scales I've seen are so much clunkier than the slim mag scales. Wish I knew of a tiny glass scale for the cross-slide.

 

[MikeInOr]

I also have a couple Ditron D80's. They're very readable and the user interface is bad but usable. I'm happy with the features...though I don't use much of anything other than the position itself. Where I'm not fully satisfied is with the X axis magnetic scale...I just can't trust that it's going to read correctly and match up with a cut after the fact. The Z axis has always been acceptable, but i've gone through a couple magnetic strips and an upgrade to 1 um...but still it's just not reliable. The lathe itself is fine, in that the dial movement always corresponds closely to the cut. I'm thinking now that glass scales might be better, since I've seen some localized errors from stray ferrous chips. But the glass scales I've seen are so much clunkier than the slim mag scales. Wish I knew of a tiny glass scale for the cross-slide.

Similar posts, very likely your past posts, is what lead me to get glass scales instead of magnetic scales. I obviously don't have enough DRO time to make any reliability/repeatability conclusions.

 

[Ischgl99]

I have a D80 for my mill, it seems to work well, but I have only scratched the surface of it’s capabilities. If anything happens to the Sino on my lathe, I’ll probably get a D80 for it. I completely agree about the glass scale size, I wish they made them smaller. I got a slim scale for the cross slide, but it’s still quite large.

 

[Janderso]

Sino installed and working great.
The best part, I was able to dial in a diameter using the DRO instead of the dials.
Spot on. How wonderful is that!!!

 

[Ischgl99]

After using the DRO, you begin to wonder how you got along without it! After you get comfortable with it, try playing around with zero offsets and tool libraries. You may find they are more work than they are worth for what you do, but it adds a lot of functionality under the right circumstances.

 

[MikeInOr]

After using the DRO, you begin to wonder how you got along without it! After you get comfortable with it, try playing around with zero offsets and tool libraries. You may find they are more work than they are worth for what you do, but it adds a lot of functionality under the right circumstances.

I already wish I had a DRO for making the brackets to install my new DRO!

 

[Janderso]

After using the DRO, you begin to wonder how you got along without it! After you get comfortable with it, try playing around with zero offsets and tool libraries. You may find they are more work than they are worth for what you do, but it adds a lot of functionality under the right circumstances.

I don’t think I have the personality to use the tool library.
It’s pretty cool and all that but I think I would just make mistakes with it.
Playing around yesterday I shot fir a specific diameter, dialed in based on the dro reading and I was spot on.
Now I just need a project

 

[Janderso]

After using the DRO, you begin to wonder how you got along without it! After you get comfortable with it, try playing around with zero offsets and tool libraries. You may find they are more work than they are worth for what you do, but it adds a lot of functionality under the right circumstances.

I agree.
I'm learning the limitations of my ability or the 50+ year old lathe.
I take a cut, measure, dial in to the tenth to get a result less than perfect.
Example:
1.2406"- Target is 1.2300".
I dial in the .0106" watching the dro., My OD is now measured 1.2304"
I should be happy with a 4 tenth error. After all, my machine and I are over 50

 

[Ischgl99]

I don’t think I have the personality to use the tool library.
It’s pretty cool and all that but I think I would just make mistakes with it.
Playing around yesterday I shot fir a specific diameter, dialed in based on the dro reading and I was spot on.
Now I just need a project

I programmed my tools and played with it, but feel the same way that I will likely make a mistake with it, so not sure how much I will actually use it. I wish the DROs had a display on the screen with tool number so you know which one is currently active. I didn’t see that on my D80 either, it seems like it would be easy for them to implement.

I agree.
I'm learning the limitations of my ability or the 50+ year old lathe.
I take a cut, measure, dial in to the tenth to get a result less than perfect.
Example:
1.2406"- Target is 1.2300".
I dial in the .0106" watching the dro., My OD is now measured 1.2304"
I should be happy with a 4 tenth error. After all, my machine and I are over 50

I was having the same trouble with my 3 year old lathe lol. There is some deflection when taking a cut even with new machines, so taking it in steps can be more accurate. Stefan Gotteswinter did a video on taking two smaller finishing passes instead of one deeper one to improve accuracy. For your example, you would take a 0.050” diameter cut, measure what the actual diameter was, then compensate for the difference for your final cut. That is if you need better accuracy than 0.0004”! Lol

 

[rwdenney]

I programmed my tools and played with it, but feel the same way that I will likely make a mistake with it, so not sure how much I will actually use it. I wish the DROs had a display on the screen with tool number so you know which one is currently active. I didn’t see that on my D80 either, it seems like it would be easy for them to implement.


I was having the same trouble with my 3 year old lathe lol. There is some deflection when taking a cut even with new machines, so taking it in steps can be more accurate. Stefan Gotteswinter did a video on taking two smaller finishing passes instead of one deeper one to improve accuracy. For your example, you would take a 0.050” diameter cut, measure what the actual diameter was, then compensate for the difference for your final cut. That is if you need better accuracy than 0.0004”! Lol

One point of Stefan's video was not so much two small cuts, but only two medium-sized cuts instead of a big cut followed by several shavings. His point was that the small cuts will be difficult to maintain a good finish, but the one large cut will cause tool and workpiece deflection that will undermine accuracy.

A DRO is really required for that strategy. The dial on my old South Bend lathe's cross-slide is pretty small to read anything smaller than about half a thou, and the main strategy for dials like that without a DRO is cut, measure, cut, measure, cut, measure, with the last cut being a thou or two or maybe even a spring pass using sharp HSS cutters rather than carbide inserts.

But I doubt I've made much of anything very large that needed better than 4 tenths accuracy. The cheaper DRO's with 5-micron resolution can't get better than 2 tenths except by luck, and that's assuming the scale is really accurate. And all of those scales have an expected accuracy over a relatively long length that is somewhat less than the specific resolution.

Even with a DRO, accuracy takes real work and skill.

Rick "not as old as my lathe" Denney