Digital readout for mill/lathe

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Another [please note I have not said 'a better'] way, for iOS users is to use the Photogene4 App, which is quick and powerful for rotating, cropping, and re-sizing.

MichaelG.

I cant help but think that some of the so called better DROs come from the far east anyways.

only thing your getting is comeback should anything go wrong,

I am not talking top DROs here.

that said, I dont actully own a DRO as yet, have been looing at buying Three !!!!!!!!!! two mills and a lathe LOL

the mid range priced uk sold DRO look a lot like the cheaper priced far east DROs

A vote for the cheap end of the scale, no pun intended!

I bought Arc's cheapest for X and Y travel on the mill, and a stand alone battery powered jobbie for the Z axis previously from Warco.

OK, Arc's cheapest doesn't do all the more expensive glass scales do, need protecting from swarf/coolant, and sometimes the read-out trips when the mill motor switches on or off despite having an anti-surge plug-in fitted, but I couldn't justify spending more for a better/higher quality spec for the amount of work I do.

Having said that, they all work well, do what I need, have made things so much easier to do, and were well worth the very modest cost, wouldn't want to be without them, and would recommend them to all on a very limited budget. Not only that, but when the read-out went down Arc were very prompt with a no quibble replacement, can't fault them.

Hope this helps other engineers on a limited budget!!

Chris

There's a guy on the Shumatech Yahoo group right now who has two unassembled DRO-550 kits that he wants to sell.

Link (if it works .... you may need to join the group).

Growing into this work before the advent of cheap units I made many expensive mistakes.

I bought a second hand Heidenhain 2 axis DRO with 1/2 thou reading and paid £700 for it was was pleased to have got it for that price. In all fairness it did me proud.

I then moved onto the BW, fly by wire units which at the time cost around £300 for two axis and the better display.

Total waste of time and only good for 2 thou on a good day, more like 5 or 6 thou on a lathe.

Then moved onto a Shumatech 350 DRO with Chinese scales, no idea what that cost what with replacement scales every 10 minutes and having to send the head off for repair and never did get the jittering sorted.

This got thrown into cupboard somewhere, might even be there still ?

Next move was to the cheaper range of Chinese displays and glass scales, at that time around just under £500 for a three axis.

Never looked back.

Had Jade units, Sino, Eason, and countless other makes. Had one scale go down after about 8 years of full time use and that's it. Because I also fit and supply to others I must have bought around 15 full units.

I'm currently running 6 in my own shop.

With the way the pricing is today you can't do better. If cheap was a 1/10th of the price it might be worth a chance but it's not that big a gap nowadays.

Might be a bargain for some one 15hrs to go £100 current but collect. 3 axis unit plus two glass scales worth £420.
**LINK**
These are the Machine Dro/Allendale older budget readout approx. £180, have two of them. All sizes and parts on their site.

Whilst on there noticed RGD selling the Positron 3 axis £150 just a readout does nothing else have one bought from Warco 17 yrs ago took 4 months to arrive and went to wrong place across the road, not used in 16 yrs if anyone can make use of it.

One thing I would steer clear of is any company that fails or refuses to put the sizes your buying on site a prerequisite for working out whats required. More importantly when not in technical spec ie Malcs M300 supplier. Now lost the dovetails and need extra ram protruding to clear but the easy route. X axis on M300 don't come any simpler the aluminium backings not as accurate as the lathe lugs for the hydraulic no shims necessary.

I succumbed to the lure of Arc's offerings. I've never been one to resist temptation.....

Whilst paying a visit for some tooling, I bought two readouts, 1 x 2 axis for my lathe and 1 x 3 axis for the 626 mill plus three scales.....

Just got to find time to install them now.....