I have a 3 or 4-year-old PM 932 M-PDF mill. bought it new and it came with a little DRO on the spindle. shortly after purchase, I installed 3 of the little Igaging DRO's, which work fine in lieu pf reading dials but don't do much more. just put a real DRO on my new lathe so want to do the same for the mill. this mill, as the model suggests, has power down feed. my question is, do I need a DRO on the Z axis? as a mostly unskilled hobbyist, I use the spindle dial and the hand lever for down cutting, which has its own DRO (a tiny one). don't think I've ever used the power down feed to cut anything, just for running the head up and down, which is awesome. do you guys with this type of mill use the DRO on your PDF? is this a dumb question LOL?
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DRO for mill question.
- Thread starter yota
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I think you answered your own question- if you haven't used the PDF yet you probably won't, so no real need to add a DRO to it
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I'm a bit confused, Isn't the power down feed for the Quill/Spindle, which is different from the from the motorized Z axis to rase & lower the Head? At least that's the way it is on my mill.
Anyway I recently added the Quill Z and combined it with the Head Z using a summing interface. I totally love the arrangement and find it very useful.
Here are the links to my Mill DRO journey:
Dro Install On Mill *Updated*
Thread continued here: https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/mounting-a-z-axis-dro-on-a-bridgeport-clone-quill.105439/#post-1030783
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[How-To] - Mounting a Z axis DRO on a Bridgeport (Clone) Quill
Hi All, A few years back I completed the DRO installation on my mill by adding the Z Axis to the head, that is my mill is a bed style where the head raises and lowers not the knee or table. However, I found it not be as useful or at least user friendly as I thought, mainly due to the fine...
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nice mill Eddyde. it's the motorized Z axis I am considering leaving without a DRO. I wasn't aware of a summing interface, but I can't think of a condition where I would need to read out the head Z axis. probably because of my lack of experience. I use the motorized head to get to where I need to be and then use the quill, which has a small DRO. what is an example of something where you would want a DRO readout on the head Z axis?
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Not my field, but you could establish tool to deck absolute. It might be a life-saver sometime.
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I use my Z Axis DRO when I need to move the head in the middle of an operation, I can take note of the spindle numbers and the head numbers and with some simple math get back on the money quicker.
Best advise I can give is use the same DRO on both your mill and Lathe with identical display/controls, it'll simplify your world greatly.
now that makes sense to me. did not think of that sadly. also good advice on using the same DRO as the lathe and that's what I was planning to do. thanks!