Adding a DRO to my mill

Just got an Elliott 00 mill and fitted a single phase motor.

It runs great and has a good tight table.

I want to add a DRO, without breaking the bank.

I found the Yuriystoys page showing a tablet display connected to iGages scales, but these seem quite pricey to buy.

There are complete 3 axis kits on ebay with glass scales for £230 including shipping...

Anyone tried the ebay kits?

Is there a cheaper source for iGages scales?

I need 600mm on the X axis.

Cheers!

I fitted glass scales to the X and Y axis on my Champion V20S, the Z already had a built in scale; I purchased them from DRO Systems and the quality was excellent as was the after sales service. Not the cheapest around but worth it for the quality and no hassle, good company to deal with, usual disclaimer.

Dave

I've got an HXX DRO fitted to my Bridgeport clone. Bought it myself in China and brought it back myself but a complete system is similar price to what you quote.

This is the one I've got. The manual was in extremely strong Chinglish but you can read one of the manuals from the other suppliers as they are very similar.

Murray

I've no idea what the epay kits give you for your money.

Depends on what absolute accuracy you get, or need, and what the electronic box will do for you. The dro on my mill will work out coordinates for far more than I will ever need, I suspect - and is more accurate than my machining will ever be, too!

Edited By not done it yet on 30/10/2017 20:51:35

Got mine from MDRO, so good I then bought a set for the lathe as well. Once you've used them you'll never go back. MDRO were very helpful indeed.

**LINK**

This is the ebay kit. Everyone seems to offer similar display units and all quote 5um but 50um would be fine enough for me!

The scales can be any length up to 1000mm.

**LINK**

£222 looks like a good price delivered, as long as it comes through customs without additions. Otherwise it may be much closer to £300.

It depends, then, on how you value local, cf international, after sales service, should you need it.

I recently got caught by banggood, sending out-of-spec rubbish. Just a good job it was not something that might have broken the bank.

Feedback looks good, but that only lasts for a short while and maybe does not reflect breakdowns at 11 months.

Your money, your choice. Looks very much like the standard box of tricks with a different brand name and, yes, it will likely do as much as you might ever need.

Richard, single phase motors ?? horizontal and vertical.

I too have one of these machines and fitting the DRO is the next job.

Be aware that the X axis fitted to the back of the table, ideally needs to be as shallow as possible so as not to lose travel. The Y axis is tricky to fit and the Z normally ends up on the column side.

There is a Yahoo group for Elliott owners **LINK**

A photo gallery which has quite few Omnimills fitted with DRO should help with design / fitment

The set I gave the link to was under £200 delivered and sold directly by the company that makes the glass scales. It's the same display unit as the ebay one which is a sort of generic product.

Very happy with mine and you can even shorten the scales if you need to.

Murray

I have used the Yuriystoys solution on both a Cowells mill and lathe. I bought the magnetic scales from Machine-DRO and built up the quadrature controller as per Yuriys plans. A spare Android tablet used as the display. The magnetic scales are more expensive than the glass but a very neat job can be done due to the small amount of space that they require.

Colin

That's what I went with. Ordered yesterday for £178 plus vat and duty probably...

I'll post on my experience with the order and fitting etc.

Fingers crossed!

Just put the vertical motor on for now. A 1500watt just fits with some new mounting holes drilled.

I'm missing the horizontal arbor holder, but to be honest I just wanted a solid knee mill for peanuts... I don't really have the room for a Bridgeport.

I'll check that Yahoo group. Thanks!

Murray , how easy are scale to shorten, i know magentic scales are easy but ive seen the odd cheap older readouts with scales , but obviously taken off full size industrial machines. Ive heard people say they are easy to shorten despite certain manufacturers saying they cant be shortened . I think the last cheap ones i saw was a newall spherosyn? Readout plus three scales ,( scale were far two big for a alexander mill) but all was less than £100.

and i believe they use some sort of steel balls in the scale and arent glass. Newall say they cant be shortened but after reading one or two forums some people were saying they tried it and they worked fine to all intents .

DRO from HXX is en-route and due to arrive today. (well some of it is...)

So ordered on 30th oct.

Confirmed lengths 1st nov.

HXX then said they had no stock of display so supplied slightly different one.

Shipped from Hong Kong 7th nov

In UK for delivery 10th Nov - appears to be 2 separate packages, coming different routes though.

Shipping via DHL has good tracking and notification by SMS.

As I'm not a rich bast*rd, I elected to pay the import duty, but I daresay that can be negotiated with the seller.

Anyway, like the guy said falling from a plane with no parachute, "so far so good...."

Scales arrived first! All ok, despite rather unsubstantial box...

Came with brackets, various fixings and aluminium covers. Leads are approx 3m long.

Nothing is rattling/scratched/bent.

Just waiting to get display now - which is coming via a different route for some reason.

Edited By richard markham on 10/11/2017 11:48:02

Hi Richard can i ask how you paid for them?? Paypal? As it never seems to be offered in listings on aliexpress.

These "glass scales" are basically a length of flat glass with a laser-etched scale on it. So basically companies like HXX do a lot of laser scale making.

To shorten one of these glass scales, you remove one or both of the end caps, withdraw the little sliding bogey thing (with the electronics on it) and simply score and snap the glass to the correct length. You can also take the opportunity to clean the original operators finger prints from the scale(!). Then reassemble, having shortened the aluminium housing and wipers too, of course. A couple of photos here in my album. You have to drill and tap the 4 holes which isn't the end of the world.

One thing to be aware of is that most scales have an index mark as well as the basic A/B scale markings. That allows you to reacquire the absolute position after a power down where the table has been moved. So ideally you wouldn't chop off the part with the index. It would still work but you'd lose that ability to reacquire your position. Best way is to tell it to find the index mark (display blinks until it finds the mark or possibly beeps?), then mark where it is to check it isn't a problem.

Murray

Thanks Murray for the explanation, ill bear it in mind if i come across anything suitable. Does this only apply to the modern Chinese scales like discussed in this thread?

Sorry, I have only ever messed about with these glass scales. I may be wrong but I believe many (most?) of the DRO scales have similar A/B/X TTL outputs, so it may be fairly straightforward to mix and match different scales. The resolution is presumably a configurable item in the DRO itself.

These aren't particularly compact scales so in some cases it may be better to use smaller equivalents.

Murray

Paypal is owned by ebay as you may know. I don't think I've ever had the choice to use Paypal with Aliexpress. They have their own equivalent payment system ("Alipay" but I think I've always used my debit card. They take their security fairly seriously I expect and so far I've never had any kind of issue.

Murray