How has been your experience with DROPros?

[WobblyHand]

Ditron glass scales are excellent. EMS magnetic scales are good, full size Ditron magnetic scales are at best passable, Ditron mini magnetic scales are hot garbage.

Thanks for the clarification. My Ditron glass scales are great, but that's all I have as a point of reference.

 

[jlficken]

DRO Pro’s just told me they’d sell the EMS scales individually so I asked for a price.

I guess I’ll see if they get back to me and go from there.

 

[D. Kent]

You're lucky. I tried to purchase a DRO kit for my mill and the arrogance and attitude at DRO Pros was just oozing when I was mistaken for someone else that had been harassing them (same first name and I write "really" in my emails). It should have been a warning sign when the person helping me wanted to argue that I was wrong about the Y-axis travel distance on my Lagun FT-1. This was in August, had the most bizarre exchange that resulted in me choosing Aikron from Machine Tools. I had no problems, no BS, and paid considerable less - not CA $$$$, going Aikron. The real cost will be in your time drilling holes and mounting to your machine. I realize this might be water under the bridge and maybe I'm an anomaly, but after a few ugly exchanges, it was clear DRO Pros was NOT for me- even though they are a 30 minute drive away.

 

[jlficken]

DRO Pro’s just told me they’d sell the EMS scales individually so I asked for a price.

I guess I’ll see if they get back to me and go from there.

They never replied so I’m going to wind up going with something else.

 

[borges1]

i just asked for pricing from them for scales only on a pm833. my intent was to use touchDRO so only needed the scales. They got back to me within a week and gave a price with shipping for a tiny bit more than the specific kit from PM for my machine. The scales i asked for were not in stock so they quoted longer ones (at full price) to be cut. They clearly want to sell kits, but dont even come close to PM for the same hardware! PM includes the display, plus their mounting kits have proved worthwile - at the same cost for just scales from DROpros (which i don't really need). PM shipping was better, i have used them before happily, so ill go that route - unless you sell scales!

Seems to me they are really missing several points.

 

[jlficken]

i just asked for pricing from them for scales only on a pm833. my intent was to use touchDRO so only needed the scales. They got back to me within a week and gave a price with shipping for a tiny bit more than the specific kit from PM for my machine. The scales i asked for were not in stock so they quoted longer ones (at full price) to be cut. They clearly want to sell kits, but dont even come close to PM for the same hardware! PM includes the display, plus their mounting kits have proved worthwile - at the same cost for just scales from DROpros (which i don't really need). PM shipping was better, i have used them before happily, so ill go that route - unless you sell scales!

Seems to me they are really missing several points.

They actually just got back to me too and I discovered the same thing as you.

I wanted to try TouchDRO, however, the pricing for just the scales from DROpros means it just makes much more sense to get the kit from PM instead.

ETA: I found an old tablet that my wife had before going to an iPad and played with TouchDRO a bit on it. At this point I'm either going to wait for Youri to start selling scales or I'll get them from M-DRO, however, I do plan on going with TouchDRO for my mill.

 

[CAllenB]

I bought a 1um MagnaSlim read head with 20" tape this past January from DRO Pros. I had originally emailed EMS directly and they responded that DRO Pros was their agent in the US and I had to purchase through them. Emailed DRO Pros and got a response in just a few days. Paid via PayPal and had it in under a week from the first message.

It wasn't cheap (about $300 with shipping) but it is very small. Perfect for a cross slide on a lathe. I could have saved some money by not getting their hardware bag or the extrusion. But, I didn't know what I'd need until I had it in hand.

Chris

 

[ycroosh]

They actually just got back to me too and I discovered the same thing as you.

I wanted to try TouchDRO, however, the pricing for just the scales from DROpros means it just makes much more sense to get the kit from PM instead.

ETA: I found an old tablet that my wife had before going to an iPad and played with TouchDRO a bit on it. At this point I'm either going to wait for Youri to start selling scales or I'll get them from M-DRO, however, I do plan on going with TouchDRO for my mill.

There is a very high probability that I will be selling MagnaSlim scales in near future. I am getting a lot of requests from the customers, and the numbers seem to work out "OK".

 

[jlficken]

There is a very high probability that I will be selling MagnaSlim scales in near future. I am getting a lot of requests from the customers, and the numbers seem to work out "OK".

Awesome!

When you're ready to sell the scales I'm in for an X and Y axis pair for my mill as well as a TDA-420. I just don't have a use for Z right now as I do have a basic quill DRO already.

Hopefully I didn't butcher your name...I tried to find the spelling in your profile but couldn't find it and thought I'd seen it spelled that way previously.

ETA: I'll need to use the EMC14 reader as I don't have space on the back of my table for EMC25 without it hitting the column with the table as far back as it'll go.