Scales question

[JFL4066]

Great! Thx Yuriy.
I'm looking at some Magnetic Readers and see the tape can be glued to various flat surfaces. I'm thinking of bonding the tape to 1/8" x 1" x 16" stainless steel flat stock and mount them. Or bond it directly to the mill table side. Have you or anyone done this or seen it successfully done. Any foreseen issues?

 

[stuarth44]

Hi Yuriy

I've been looking at Touch DRO for some time now, but a couple of things have made me hold off..

First and most importantly: scales. I'm in the UK, and found it almost impossible to find reasonably priced scales where suppliers give any info on what type they are, which makes it very tricky to figure out if I'm buying something compatible. Do you have any suggestions please?

Secondly the shipping cost. A small thing, but it's a large percentage of the purchase cost to ship it over here. This made me look at the arduino self build solution, but figuring out what scales are usable with that proved even harder.

I love the concept though, and really want to get myself a setup going on my Bridgeport! Any suggestions/advice would be most welcome

crikey, this is all a bit beyond me, the post below should be clear to me, but alas the terms are quite foreign, i'm thinking using dro is not a good way to learn turning, but useful for experienced people, also my Y is 78 inches x 12, but most work is near the chuck, which scale type is best and do cheapos work, stay safe all

 

[ThinWoodsman]

i'm thinking using dro is not a good way to learn turning, but useful for experienced people,

DROs are great for mills, and really any machine where you move the work. You can use an edge finder to locate the work, zero the DRO, and you're good to go. When you're moving the tool, as in a lathe, then adjusting or changing the tool throws the DRO settings out the window, and you've lost your zero. So, to me, they've always seemed a bit too fiddly for lathe use.

This is not to say they are entirely useless. Some DRO software lets you set tool-specific zeroes, for use with QCTP holders. And the DRO can always be used like a trav-a-dial: set the tool as you usually do, zero the DRO, and you're good to go.

I've just found it easier to clamp a $30 2" dial indicator to ways/saddle/tailstock instead of spending all the time to mount a DRO (not to mention ensuring the batteries don't go bad, ugh).

 

[ycroosh]

I actually find the DRO on the lathe almost more useful than the mill. One of the reasons I made presenting the position a two-click operation in TouchDRO was to make it easier to turn.
For most of my work, I use "Trigon" insert tool (I find that aluminum-specific Iscar inserts work very well on my small lathe for making relatively light cuts in steel). My processes is as follows:
1. Make a cleanup facing cut
2. Without moving the carriage set the Z position to either 0 or the dimension on the drawing (depending where the 0 is in the drawing)
3. Make a turning cut
4. Measure the diameter using a micrometer
5. Switch TouchDRO to diameter mode (although is mostly is that mode) and see the dimension for X-axis to the measurement

Now as long as I don't change the tool or the compound angle, I don't need to remeasure. I actually don't have my tools "memorized" in the tool library, since with a traditional compound this is too much of a hassle but in the new version of the all I am toying with an idea that will make that easier.

Threading, internal boring or especially internal threading I find that TouchDRO lowers my blood pressure by at least 10%

Regards
Yuriy

 

[RJSakowski]

I have the Touch DRO on the x, z, and tailstock of my G0602 lathe. While I don't always bother with using it, it is convenient to have it. As some of you may have noticed, the lead screws on the cross slide, compound, and tail stock are metric while the dials are inch and only approximate (.060 dial vs. .059 actual). Additionally, the dials are either .04" or .06"/rev. which means that for any extended travel, you need to do some math.

 

[stuarth44]

DROs are great for mills, and really any machine where you move the work. You can use an edge finder to locate the work, zero the DRO, and you're good to go. When you're moving the tool, as in a lathe, then adjusting or changing the tool throws the DRO settings out the window, and you've lost your zero. So, to me, they've always seemed a bit too fiddly for lathe use.

This is not to say they are entirely useless. Some DRO software lets you set tool-specific zeroes, for use with QCTP holders. And the DRO can always be used like a trav-a-dial: set the tool as you usually do, zero the DRO, and you're good to go.

I've just found it easier to clamp a $30 2" dial indicator to ways/saddle/tailstock instead of spending all the time to mount a DRO (not to mention ensuring the batteries don't go bad, ugh).

thanks, I'll pass, my sons have not used the lathe yet, druther they learn dti