Quill DRO for a PM935?

[[X]Outlaw]

You can set your quill stop to your desired depth. When the stop is hit the quill auto down feed will disengage.

 

[ddickey]

This thread brings up something I hadn't thought of:
With a knee mill, how is a hole in the work bored? DRO sensors are typically on the knee, which implies that the knee controls the cutter feed. The thing is, most quills have a fine feed lever (much more fine than the knee handle), which seems to imply that's what's supposed to feed the cutter into the work. Which is it? My PM935 hasn't arrived yet, hence the question.

Depends. For larger drills raising the knee is the proper way I believe. There is no feel though using the knee as opposed to the quill so for small drill bits the quill is better. Other operations like end or face milling you use the knee.

 

[Firstgear]

My PM950 has three axis DRO and one of them is on the knee. I bought one of these to also have a DRO on the quill. Overkill? Yeah, maybe....

 

[davidpbest]

I would not be without a DRO on the quill. I have a 3-axis Newall DRO on my PM935 including the knee. Details here:

https://flickr.com/photos/53698949@N05/sets/72157700369813974

But for the quill I prefer a digital scale with integral display - easier to watch progress when tapping than having the display off to a side-mounted display head. So I also added a Mitutoyo DRO on the quill. Details here:

https://flickr.com/photos/53698949@N05/sets/72157699692406901

Having a quill DRO is very helpful when setting the quill power feed depth stop for counterbores, countersink, boring, etc. Yes, you can use the knee with DRO for large drilling ops, but I find it less convenient than using the quill most of the time, and the quill is better for power feeding ops since it has a depth stop and the knee does not.