-
Welcome back Guest! Did you know you can mentor other members here at H-M? If not, please check out our Relaunch of Hobby Machinist Mentoring Program!
Can y'all post some photos of your quill DRO setups?
- Thread starter ycroosh
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2014
- Messages
- 5,071
You might consider direct mounting the magnetic tape to the head or on a raised aluminum strip, just glue it to the head's flat area with some silicone or use two small mounting screws. Reader head in green would mount as shown, and then very simple to have an L cover mounted to the aluminum base strip. Newer magnetic tape reader heads and tape are much smaller, some also have wipes to clear any chips/swarf.
www.machine-dro.co.uk
Magnetic Linear Encoder Reading Head - 5 Micron Resolution
Magnetic Linear Encoder Reading Head with 5 micron resolution. Compatible with M-DRO high accuracy magnetic tape - DRO-MG-TP-05-HA
www.machine-dro.co.uk
When I purchased my mill from someone local to you he had already purchased them. He was in contact with you when you first started out. There where 4 of them that came with it. I decided to go with optical on my knee and table for the added protection but used the one on my quill and plan to use 2 of them on my lathe at a later date as I have them.
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2021
- Messages
- 2,969
It appears that you can purchase them direct from RLS for shipping to the U.S.:
https://www.rls.si/eng/faq/index/show/cat_id/5/faq/32/
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2020
- Messages
- 52
I had been buying the capacitive absolute + scales and TouchDRO board one by one over last several years and just now installing on my re-built Bridgeport. If I had it to do over, I would probably go straight to glass or magnetic because of the apparent price drop. However, my perceived cost is relatively low so I'm hopeful this setup will work well enough. We will see soon.
Here is the way I mounted the 6" absolute DRO + scale on the Z quill. I made a quill stop knob adapter piece that attaches to the read head.
I then made an upper and lower mounting plate to hold the scale. The 2 drilled and tapped holes in the Bridgeport bosses are the only holes I have drilled in this re-build.
Here are the 3 parts. The back lipped profile of the upper and lower brackets were grooved with a 3/8" end mill and a 90 degree chamfer bit. Supports were welded on and tapped to secure the scale brackets. The quill stop knob "plug" is an expanding type. Attachment to read head is the 2 screws on the edge.
Everything aligned fairly easily, since the Bridgeport bosses are true and square to the quill axis. Nothing is degraded. Quill stop works and scale is retained. Speed nut is accessible by reaching around the scale. I could have cut off a good inch at the top end of the scale that wasn't needed, but everything fit together so well, I would be asking for trouble if I tried to improve anything.
Here is the way I mounted the 6" absolute DRO + scale on the Z quill. I made a quill stop knob adapter piece that attaches to the read head.
I then made an upper and lower mounting plate to hold the scale. The 2 drilled and tapped holes in the Bridgeport bosses are the only holes I have drilled in this re-build.
Here are the 3 parts. The back lipped profile of the upper and lower brackets were grooved with a 3/8" end mill and a 90 degree chamfer bit. Supports were welded on and tapped to secure the scale brackets. The quill stop knob "plug" is an expanding type. Attachment to read head is the 2 screws on the edge.
Everything aligned fairly easily, since the Bridgeport bosses are true and square to the quill axis. Nothing is degraded. Quill stop works and scale is retained. Speed nut is accessible by reaching around the scale. I could have cut off a good inch at the top end of the scale that wasn't needed, but everything fit together so well, I would be asking for trouble if I tried to improve anything.