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DRO recommendations
- Thread starter garry
- Start date
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2013
- Messages
- 2,330
I recently purchased the Quality Machine Tools MagXact Magnetic MX-200L 2 Axis Lathe LCD DRO (8x40 Inch Scales). I have owned/used several of the lesser model EL400's and liked them. QMT has the more advanced version for less than the other seller wants for the EL400.
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2014
- Messages
- 5,053
What is your budget?
How many axis do you need 2, 3, 4?
Glass scales or magnetic scales?
Numerical number display or graphical display, do you need advance functions such as bolt circles, arrays, tool datum libraries?
Many people these days are gravitating toward Yuri's Touch DRO which works with a wide array of scales, and you provide your own touch screen PDA. It will also integrate with some battery powered spindle mounted scales. There are inexpensive 3 and 4 scale DRO's, general recommendation is to stick with glass scales due to poor quality of the magnetic scales in these cheaper DRO's. Better quality DRO's (read $800+) with magnetic scales work well, AKA Electronica brand EL700, MagXact Magnetic MX-200, Easson 12B/C (Machine DRO UK), and probably Aikron. There is a ton of previous posts in these DRO's and reviews.
www.hobby-machinist.com
How many axis do you need 2, 3, 4?
Glass scales or magnetic scales?
Numerical number display or graphical display, do you need advance functions such as bolt circles, arrays, tool datum libraries?
Many people these days are gravitating toward Yuri's Touch DRO which works with a wide array of scales, and you provide your own touch screen PDA. It will also integrate with some battery powered spindle mounted scales. There are inexpensive 3 and 4 scale DRO's, general recommendation is to stick with glass scales due to poor quality of the magnetic scales in these cheaper DRO's. Better quality DRO's (read $800+) with magnetic scales work well, AKA Electronica brand EL700, MagXact Magnetic MX-200, Easson 12B/C (Machine DRO UK), and probably Aikron. There is a ton of previous posts in these DRO's and reviews.
TouchDRO - The DIY DRO Project
www.yuriystoys.com This forum is the home of TouchDRO on Hobby Machinist. Yuriy's products are DIY DRO projects, plans and software that you can use to bring DRO to your hobby machine shop.
www.hobby-machinist.com
right now I have a non functioning accurite 2 axis on a clausing kondia It has been out for years the machine is in good shape and since I retired I would like to replace it .What is your budget?
How many axis do you need 2, 3, 4?
Glass scales or magnetic scales?
Numerical number display or graphical display, do you need advance functions such as bolt circles, arrays, tool datum libraries?
Many people these days are gravitating toward Yuri's Touch DRO which works with a wide array of scales, and you provide your own touch screen PDA. It will also integrate with some battery powered spindle mounted scales. There are inexpensive 3 and 4 scale DRO's, general recommendation is to stick with glass scales due to poor quality of the magnetic scales in these cheaper DRO's. Better quality DRO's (read $800+) with magnetic scales work well, AKA Electronica brand EL700, MagXact Magnetic MX-200, Easson 12B/C (Machine DRO UK), and probably Aikron. There is a ton of previous posts in these DRO's and reviews.
TouchDRO - The DIY DRO Project
www.yuriystoys.com This forum is the home of TouchDRO on Hobby Machinist. Yuriy's products are DIY DRO projects, plans and software that you can use to bring DRO to your hobby machine shop.
also I am contemplating a CNC conversion any thoughts?
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2013
- Messages
- 2,330
Expensive, know the limits of what you will end up with.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2018
- Messages
- 5,883
I've had this one for 6 years. Quite happy.
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2019
- Messages
- 7,289
I bought some 1um optical scales from Ditron from AliExpress for my lathe. I found out later, Ditron has a factory store that you can order from. They will cut them to custom sizes, per customer request. They weren't terribly expensive, vaguely remember it being below $300 for the two scales.
For the display, I rolled my own, since I was designing an electronic lead screw at the time. So my lathe DRO is integrated into my ELS. I simply used open source encoder code libraries and effectively counted the pulses myself. Since I was using a high end 600 MHz micro-controller at the time, and using the identical encoder libraries for my spindle encoder, it made sense to incorporate the Z and X position information onto my touch panel display.
Early shot of me testing the scale.
For the display, I rolled my own, since I was designing an electronic lead screw at the time. So my lathe DRO is integrated into my ELS. I simply used open source encoder code libraries and effectively counted the pulses myself. Since I was using a high end 600 MHz micro-controller at the time, and using the identical encoder libraries for my spindle encoder, it made sense to incorporate the Z and X position information onto my touch panel display.
Early shot of me testing the scale.
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2013
- Messages
- 281
There's a TouchDRO sub forum on this site.. Lot of great info.
I have TouchDRO on my Vertical mill.. Works great, utilize my own inexpensive tablet as display, which I can use for many other computer related necessities.. Also listen to internet radio on tablet while working on mill.
I have TouchDRO on my Vertical mill.. Works great, utilize my own inexpensive tablet as display, which I can use for many other computer related necessities.. Also listen to internet radio on tablet while working on mill.
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2019
- Messages
- 466
If you have the budget I absolutely love my Newall dro's. So easy to install the scales. Accurite and Heidenhein are also magnificent, but even more expensive. I have all of them and for the cost, I'd buy Newall again.