Igaging Dro's, Tachometers And Power Feed Install Hf Mini's

[ronboley]

I decided to finally upgrade my HF mini's with DRO's, Tachometers and Power X Feed on the mill. Since the lathe and mill both cost under $400 to begin with...this upgrade needed to be inexpensive as well. The IGaging DRO's were $27 to $42 each (Amazon), the Tach's were $19 each (Amazon), power supplies were $8 each, plastic enclosure boxes were $2 (WalMart) each and hardware was scrounged around the garage. Most costly item was the Mini Mill power feed at $200 (Little Machine Shop). Although the DRO's came with brackets, I had to fabricate sheet metal brackets to fit each to the lath or mill....Part of the fun...I'm still trying them all out but they all seem to be functioning as expected. The DRO's are battery operated and come with two sets of batteries. The Tach's were connected to power supplies in the enclosure box. The sensors just pick up a magnet attached to the rotating spindle of the machine. Lots of pictures hopefully speak a thousand words.

 

[RJSakowski]

Nice job Ron! You will enjoy the new features!

 

[barnett]

Looks great!! Where did you get the power supplies ?

 

[unioncreek]

Ron
Can you post more info on your tach equipment.

Bob

 

[ronboley]

Here's the tachometer and power supply information from Amazon. Basically a magnet is set on to a rotating shaft and the pick up sends a signal to the circuit board/display unit. The power supply is 110v to 12v so you can use the lathe wiring for power or just use a 12v battery. There are a couple of videos on you tube showing tach installations. The mounting box I used is just a household item I found at Wal Mart.

2 of XA 4 Digital Blue LED Tachometer RPM Speed Meter + Hall Proximity Switch Sensor NPN
Sold by: XtremeAmazing--Ships from USA Product question? Ask Seller
$18.97


2 of 12V 2A DC Universal Regulated Switching Power Supply
Sold by: E-Goal
$7.64

 

[hman]

I'm installing that style of tach on a drill press I'm converting to use a treadmill motor. Just for fun, I checked your Amazon link for the tach. Durn! They now want $110 for it!!!! I don't know if that's a misprint or what, because $18.97 sounds like the right price.

So I went to eBay and found bunch of alternatives at or below the price you mentioned:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Digital-R...744?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43c83e9650
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Blu...422?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ce2289dd6
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Blue-4-Digi...885?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a871c3105

I'm using this one, along with a photosensor I already had:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/0-56-DIGITA...H_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item56738bdb33&vxp=mtr

PS - I usually buy 12 volt "wall warts" at Goodwill. It takes some digging to find the right output, but neither the tach nor the sensor take a lot of current, and used wall warts are incredibly cheap.

PS - That's a great housing you came up with for the tach and power supply!