Cross Slide Rotary Encoder

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Although it probably wouldn’t slip onto a Boxford, there was … but they weren’t good enough to survive the process of ‘natural selection’ … The WolfCraft ones used Gray Code and mechanical wipers busily wearing-out the PCB tracks, and a tiny grey-on-grey LCD

With the increasing miniaturisation of electronics; it’s probably time someone re-thunk the idea and made a Bluetooth-enabled equivalent with decent resolution, which put the display on your ‘phone or whatever.

Meanwhile … we can but dream

MichaelG.

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With the increasing miniaturisation of electronics; it’s probably time someone re-thunk the idea and made a Bluetooth-enabled equivalent with decent resolution, which put the display on your ‘phone or whatever.

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oh, so something like this perhaps?

https://www.yuriystoys.com/

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Not quite

I know and love what you have done over the years, but unless I have missed it [in which case please forgive me] there is nothing of yours that does the bit that Speedy was looking for … a self-contained rotary device which slips nicely onto a feed-screw and counts parts of a turn.

MichaelG.

Not me, although that names are similar

It was more a response to the bluetooth connection and on screen display than the leadscrew bit of the OP's request.

I do think though that using small format magnetic scales on the slide is a better approach than the rotary encoder option, as you will be measuring actual slide displacement rather than something one link removed from it.

The encoders that Joe referenced look nice, but would one need to calibrate them? For example, the LS pitch might be a bit off, or the screw somewhat worn.

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Oops ! … I thought it was an a.k.a.

MichaelG.

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Ultimately, direct reading of linear movement must be the preferred option, but if Speedy just wants a convenient display of Metric values this seems very expedient, and almost certainly better than the visual resolution of a Boxford dial.

MichaelG.

Way back in the mists of time (2013?) I described in ME how I'd mounted an encoder onto the leadscrew of a Cowells lathe. Readout by Arduino. It had a 90 slot wheel which gives better than half a thou resolution with a 0.1" pitch screw. You'd need to find a way of mounting the optoswitches onto the handwheel bracket. By this time, I'd be seriously looking at just buying the gubbins and using a magnetic tape. You'll want DRO on the saddle soon enough having got used to it on the cross slide. If you want a copy of the article send me a pm

Chronos list these displays for the C3 type lathes. You may be stuck with the feedscrew pitch of the C3 lathe though.**LINK**

Mike

I guess I was looking for something like this with a hole through the middle?

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That was certainly my assumption

… and what Mike links 

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 17/10/2022 19:50:40

They do have a hole through the middle see here

However as I said in my first post I think they come set up for metric screws so one turn will read 2.00mm or 0.079" on the display

Why not just fix a dial indicator to the cross slide to show movement across the bed? Cheap, no battery, easy to read and zero.

Fair point Ajax! The CHRONOS readout is the sort of thing I was looking for, like Jason said, if I could change the pitch of the feed screw on the device.

Bob

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That’s why I said this style of read-out had disappeared by ‘natural selection’ [Darwinism]

I have never looked inside the SIEG device, but I suspect it is very similar to the WolfCraft one.

That simply didn’t have enough ‘native resolution’ to cope as a data-source for Imperial/Metric conversion.

Sorry, I no longer have the device, so I can’t take photos … but it was mechanically quite crude.

MichaelG.

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Edit: __ See here for the use of Gray Code on shafts:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_code#Position_encoders

If I recall correctly the WolfCraft device only used four tracks

[as per the monochrome illustration on that page]

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/10/2022 07:54:48

This [being a more sophisticated SIEG unit] is interesting: **LINK**

http://www.mini-lathe.com/mini_lathe/reviews/Sieg_DRO/dro2.htm

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/10/2022 08:10:25

Thanks for the last link Michael, I knew they were thread specific but thought it was the metric thread.

What's really needed is something like a bike computer where you set distance according to tyre diameter but in this case it would be thread pitch. Switching between radius and diameter reading would be an added bonus.

Just spotted this offering by ARC : **LINK**

https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Machine-Spares/SC3-Mini-Lathe-Spares/SIEG-Mini-Lathe-DRCD-to-Manual-Conversion-Kit

It would be interesting to know what has driven this

MichaelG.

That will be the same one I linked to about this time yesterday

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Apologies, Jason … I don’t recollect following your link [because I wrongly assumed it would be for a ‘digital upgrade’ not for an upgrade from digital to mechanical]

mea culpa

MichaelG.

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P.S. __ I now also note that the SIEG digital unit, that it is shown as replacing, is already the more sophisticated version [!]

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 18/10/2022 10:32:26