what are the smallest scales available to the consumer?

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kevinpg

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I have been looking for DRO scales appropriate in size to mount to a Sherline or Unimat 3. I have installed the igaging scales on my Sherline and followed Yuri's Toys arduino plans and it works great but there is a loss of capacity in an already small capacity lathe. I mounted the iGaging on the Sherline as noted but the Unimats will be another challenge altogether.

I am open to glass scales and may have to try that but I face the same issues on those I have looked at.

So my question is: Are there any providers of micro sized scales, magnetic, glass, or other technology, available to the general public?

thanks
Kevin
 
Magnetic scales can be cut to length. At the least the ones that I bought from DROPROS.
 
Rather than bolting your scales to the lathe you can build stand-alone linear slides, mount them off the lathe so that there is no loss of motion and use simple link bars to transmit motion.
Here's the arrangement I have on my Myford Super 7 I designed it to avoid the scale being exposed directly to the chuck and work area or limiting how close to the tailstock the carriage can move.
Myford-X-DRO.jpg
The link bar I used is a hacksaw blade, it was a temporary solution but it works so it's still there after 5 years ;-)
The linear bearings, rods and mounting brackets are all off the shelf parts from CNC build part companies.
 
I mounted my mag scales inside the cross slide and carriage on my lathe. The mag tape is only 1mm thick, and the head is about an inch square x 3/8 thick.

Read head
1515189732890.png
 
Boswell said:
Magnetic scales can be cut to length. At the least the ones that I bought from DROPROS.
Click to expand...
Yes, i have done that and it was easy, I am talking about the width of the scales and the thickness of the sensor.
 
magicniner said:
Rather than bolting your scales to the lathe you can build stand-alone linear slides, mount them off the lathe so that there is no loss of motion and use simple link bars to transmit motion.
Here's the arrangement I have on my Myford Super 7 I designed it to avoid the scale being exposed directly to the chuck and work area or limiting how close to the tailstock the carriage can move.
View attachment 253077
The link bar I used is a hacksaw blade, it was a temporary solution but it works so it's still there after 5 years ;-)
The linear bearings, rods and mounting brackets are all off the shelf parts from CNC build part companies.
Click to expand...
thank you, I did something similar on the sherline. This gives me ideas for the unimat 3. as an aside, I do not care for the Sherline method, probably works great but when I think of the arrangement and given the backlash in the Sherline I am unwilling to spend that sort of money and find it disappointing.
 
Boswell said:
Magnetic scales can be cut to length. At the least the ones that I bought from DROPROS.
Click to expand...
Yes, i have done that and it was easy, I am talking about the width of the scales and the thickness of the sensor. I have been thinking of a method to use the leadscrew on the Sherline and still thinking on the cross slide solution.
 
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