Millrite Quill DRO INSTALLATION

[Tim9]

I just finished installing my DRO for the Quill on my Millrite MVI.

...I’ll post a few pictures and descriptions of how I did it. There’s probably easier ways around this. But the Millrite doesn’t have a nice flat front like the Asian mills.

The DRO I’m installing is the Shars quill DRO
If I can find the model....I’ll post that link in a day or two.
here’s the link. Got it on EBay.

SHARS 4" VERT Digital DRO Quill Large LCD Scale Mill Lathe for Bridgeport New P] | eBay

No rack, pinion, or glass scale. Linear scale is safely embedded in the hardened stainless steel blade. scale style caliper. Absolute zero setting. scale orientation Vertical. Two mounting brackets are each located at either end of the scale.

www.ebay.com

Anyway...it came out okay. If I had to do it again....the main difference would have been to get longer screws where the bracket attaches to the DRO.

also...part of my motivation of doing it like this....I didn’t want to block the view of the current 4” scale. I still need to engrave a pointer to correspond to the scale.

 

[Tim9]

The first thing I did was make two bolts which will replace the original two socket head bolts in the front of the side casting of the quill feed housing. These two bolts I made have 1/2 heads now.....and are also threaded with 10-24tpi to accept screws. A 90 degree bracket attached to these then accepted the 8020 extrusion.

80/20 Inc, 1010, 10 Series, 1 Inch x 1 Inch Extrusion x 97 Inch Long https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001F0F112/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tau_HSA1EbYHHJGR5
I

 

[Tim9]

Here’s a picture of the installed bolt and extruded 8020.
I did have to cut the extruded 8020 at a 45 degree angle so that the back doesn’t hit against the mill casting . The bottom bracket is same set up except that the 2020 is a little longer. This is because the casting of the Millrite isn’t same at the top and bottom. You’ll notice the casting takes a longer bolt at the top.

 

[Tim9]

I cut the bracket which is mounted to the top of the DRO. This bracket is tapped for two machine screws.....which may be metric. That’s said....6-32tpi screws fit right into the existing holes pretty damned good. So I just used them and didn’t even investigate the SAE or Metric issue.

I cut this bracket so that it would slide freely into the extruded 8020. Using longer 6-32 screws, I was able to mount the upper bracket to this 8020...so it freely floats in the 8020 track. This allows easy adjusting of the main body. That’s what I used 8020. The nuts freely float. The 90 degree brackets float. It’s just very easy to get everything adjusted and gives me the ability to tweek the final assembly.

fwiw....last picture is the bracket as it was supplied on the DRO....first is hard to see....but it’s the bracket in the vise...after it was sawed . The piece shown inside the extruded 8020 of the Is the part you can barely see....but it’s still in the vise of picture #1. Hope that makes sense

 

[Tim9]

The little brass part here is the upper bracket which attaches to the existing pointer of the Millrite. No point in trying to explain it because I kind of winged it. I just used some 1/4” thick brass stock...cut and fit. After mounting the main DRO body....and lining up this little brass piece here....it was pretty much in line with the two screw of which the bracket it supposed to attach to the mill.

 

[Tim9]

I milled another piece of 3/16” brass stock...and made the part which screws into the DRO body. I should have made this part about twice as thick and found two longer machine screws to screw into the DRO.

Here’s the bracket I made which is screwed into the DRO And the other bracket just laying on it....dry fitted so to say.

 

[Tim9]

Unfortunately....here’s where I forgot to take a lot of pictures. Anyway I drilled a hole to accept easy passing through of a 6-32 screw.....after lining up where it matched the indicator of the Millrite scale pointer....marked and drilled a hole. Tapped the Millrite pointer 6-32 threads.
Countersunk Brass upper bracket to accept screw head. Then soldered another brass stock same width as as top pointer bracket....so that it extends about 1/2” below. This will be where I screw this to the lower bracket.

after testing and checking everything out....I blue Loctited all connected screws except the two in the DRO body itself

 

[Tim9]

Here’s a couple of side views. fwiw....the DRO is pretty dammed solid. The bottom bracket had to be shimmed with 1/4” aluminum. And standard 8020 90 degree brackets were used.

 

[Tim9]

The only other thing I did was after I did final adjustments, I removed all the brackets and thoroughly cleaned the surfaces where there’s contact bracket to brackets. Then I Loctited both the 10-24 screws and the 6-32 screw..... PLUS- I applied a dab of Loctite to the the surface of the brass brackets where there’s bracket to bracket mating. Since it’s a perfect flat surface.... I guessing the Loctite will act almost like solder.... bonding the brackets and therefore eliminate any movement. Especially since on a DRO... we’re measuring thousandths. It appears pretty solid now 24 hours later. And... I just used Blue Loctite 271. I intentionally made it with brackets that are joined using screws so I can easily remove everything in case of any servicing is needed on the mill. So far... I’m happy with the outcome.

 

[DavidR8]

Nice work, looks well thought out!


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