DRO Advice

Sorry about the Link here is a link to the store I bought mine from. I note that the new displays are now LCDs and look a lot brighter and easier to read.
https://storenumber3410012.aliexpress.com/store/3410012?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.2d8819bbQGso2x

@macardoso. Over the years I have used a number of Chinese/Hong Kong suppliers and with many of them haven't been too happy with their disputes/returns policy.
More recently I started using Ebay and while an improvement, still not that great. Then a friend suggested I try Ali E and I now use them almost exclusively. For the same item, prices almost always seem to be cheaper. Often you have a wide range of shipping options from free to DHL (The Ali E shipping option is very good), and their Dispute process is very very good. All shipping is tracked on the Ali E site.
I am pretty certain that Ali Express itself is just the middle man between the store owner and the buyer, but what they are doing is dropping in a bunch of consumer guarantees. When you order something, you pay Ali E . If and when you receive the goods and confirm you are happy, Ali E pays the seller. If you aren't happy and can give fair reasons Ali E refunds your Bank account and the seller doesn't get paid. Very similar to PayPal.

To use Ali E you need to establish an account and login. When searching for something I always filter the results by "Orders" rather than "best match" and then have a careful check of the Stores rating looking for at least 4.8 to 5 and a solid red star (bottom left). I also have a good read of the reviews.

Your account also retains a complete listing of your order history and each sale has a unique 16 Digit number. 4 of those Digits are your account number.

Thank you for the very detailed response. I've purchased from Chinese supplies directly through eBay before and have been pretty happy with the outcome. I have worried about the issues that might arise from buying from China directly without buyer protection. It seems like Ali E handles that however.

I think I am leaning towards experimenting with one of these DROs from Ali E. At 1/3 of the cost of DRO PROs it is hard to argue (especially since DRO PROs is also buying Chinese equipment and reselling it).
 
I've bought a number of items through AliE and never had an issue.
Machifit is a retailer I like there. I bought a Noga mag base clone and I'm quite pleased with it.
Likewise the DRO seller was very good to work with. It arrived safe and sound and very well packed to avoid damage.
 
Thank you for the very detailed response. I've purchased from Chinese supplies directly through eBay before and have been pretty happy with the outcome. I have worried about the issues that might arise from buying from China directly without buyer protection. It seems like Ali E handles that however.

I think I am leaning towards experimenting with one of these DROs from Ali E. At 1/3 of the cost of DRO PROs it is hard to argue (especially since DRO PROs is also buying Chinese equipment and reselling it).
The 'Ditron Official Store" has been on aliE for 9 years. I've bought 2 DRO's from them and they worked fine. One is over 5 years old.I think their items cost a little more.They have a LCD digital readout which is very nice(graphics and built in help).
 
I was able to work out a quote for the following from YQLILGEN official store:
  • (1) Travel Length 850mm, Total Length 990mm, Normal Profile, 5 micron glass scale
  • (1) Travel length 150mm, Total Length 290mm, Slim Profile, 1 micron glass scale
  • (1) DRO, LCD Display, 3 Axis
  • Mounting Hardware
This was quoted at $217 shipped (with a 1 year warranty, whatever good that does :) ). There was a bit of a language barrier but they were very helpful for me to pick out what I needed. I decided to get the 3 Axis DRO in case I wanted to add another one.

Here is the link I will order. They basically let me trade the 3rd scale for a high resolution slim scale at no additional cost.


I'm very pleased with this price and think I'm going to go ahead and order it. The Ditron readouts looked great but I would have paid closer to $500 for what I wanted.
 
I was able to work out a quote for the following from YQLILGEN official store:
  • (1) Travel Length 850mm, Total Length 990mm, Normal Profile, 5 micron glass scale
  • (1) Travel length 150mm, Total Length 290mm, Slim Profile, 1 micron glass scale
  • (1) DRO, LCD Display, 3 Axis
  • Mounting Hardware
This was quoted at $217 shipped (with a 1 year warranty, whatever good that does :) ). There was a bit of a language barrier but they were very helpful for me to pick out what I needed. I decided to get the 3 Axis DRO in case I wanted to add another one.

Here is the link I will order. They basically let me trade the 3rd scale for a high resolution slim scale at no additional cost.


I'm very pleased with this price and think I'm going to go ahead and order it. The Ditron readouts looked great but I would have paid closer to $500 for what I wanted.

Gosh that sounds like you did well!
Looking forward to seeing your installation.


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Quick comment. My lathe cross slide is 311mm (12.25") long and has 155.5mm (6.13") of travel. The scales are sold in 50mm increments so I could get either a 150mm scale (just a tad too short) or a 200mm scale. Every scale is 140mm longer than the travel length, so if I chose the 200mm scale, it would stick out 29mm (1.14") beyond the end of the cross slide which would look really silly. I opted to get the 150mm scale instead which will fit entirely within the length of the cross slide.

To prevent overtraveling the scale, I will install either cut 5mm (0.20") off the cross slide lead screw or install some kind of hard stop. I never use the last inch of travel anyways so this should have no effect on me (plus the ways are very tight all the way back there).
 
Quick comment. My lathe cross slide is 311mm (12.25") long and has 155.5mm (6.13") of travel. The scales are sold in 50mm increments so I could get either a 150mm scale (just a tad too short) or a 200mm scale. Every scale is 140mm longer than the travel length, so if I chose the 200mm scale, it would stick out 29mm (1.14") beyond the end of the cross slide which would look really silly. I opted to get the 150mm scale instead which will fit entirely within the length of the cross slide.

To prevent overtraveling the scale, I will install either cut 5mm (0.20") off the cross slide lead screw or install some kind of hard stop. I never use the last inch of travel anyways so this should have no effect on me (plus the ways are very tight all the way back there).
It's not important now but cutting the scales to length is a trivial affair. I mistakenly ordered the wrong length for my X-axis on my mill and it was east to cut to the exact length I needed.
 
It's not important now but cutting the scales to length is a trivial affair. I mistakenly ordered the wrong length for my X-axis on my mill and it was east to cut to the exact length I needed.

Hmmmm, I haven't bought them yet so I could get the 200mm, BUT it seems like a bit of work and risk over 0.2" of travel. I think I'm going to stick with installing a hardstop.
 
Hmmmm, I haven't bought them yet so I could get the 200mm, BUT it seems like a bit of work and risk over 0.2" of travel. I think I'm going to stick with installing a hardstop.

I agree.


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