I am looking for a Dro for my mill, and more I look the more confused I get. I have a Sinpo 2 axis Dro 2L on my lathe and thought about getting a Sinpo 3 axis Dro 3M for my mill.

Sinpo 3 Axis Digital Readout for Mill Milling Machine Complete DRO Kit | eBay

Which is $ 661.10 plus postage also looked at the

HXX 3 axis mill DRO system 3 axis digital readout and 3 piece 0 1000mm linear glass scale for lathe milling grinder EDM machine-in Other Machinery from Industry & Business on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

This is $394.26 plus free postage.

What is the difference between the Sinpo and Sino DRO's?

Is there any other type I could be looking at?

Edited By Mark Eisen on 29/05/2016 03:18:10

Mark, find, machine-dro.co.uk. they stock various size and types. I bought mine from them for my X3 mill.

Clive

Have you looked here **LINK** or **LINK** ?

I have an HXX 3-axis on my BP clone. Works fine, although the instructions are completely unreadable. You can download instructions from another manufacturer's website though, as they are usually very similar.

Bear in mind that when you buy from an overseas shopfront eg ebay or AliExpress, you may be buying something that doesn't meet electrical safety standards, even if it appears to have a CE mark. That may be a reason to buy locally.

Like the machine tools themselves, most of these DROs are made in China and badged up. The quality (and safety?) of the product must be very much down to the company that imports and resells them. There are several good retailers that advertise on these pages.

BTW, all of my workshop machinery is fitted with a good protective earth and supplied through an RCD.

Edited By Muzzer on 29/05/2016 11:32:36

I know I've said this before on a similar thread, but Warco are doing a "budget" range of glass scales and dro set up. I bought a three-axis kit when I bought a VMC mill and they've performed perfectly. Even the manual was readable.

John

.

Good company to deal with.

Maybe a tad more expensive but worth it for the backup if ever needed. Also they have done a proper translation of the features for the operating manuals in easy to understand English and not confusing 'chinglese'

Nick

Re. Machine DRO: I still found the manual confusing, but if you approach them at an exhibition you'll get a good teach in for free. Perhaps they've upated the manual of course, mine is a few years old.

I echo Nick_G's comment, they are very helpful on the end of the phone if you run into difficulty, once I got it set up it's worked faultlessly

Thanks for your replies, one thing I for got to mention is that I live in Australia, At the moment the Aussie peso is not good for buying from the UK , £1 = $2 Aussie peso

Ali Express / HXX it is then?

I purchased my dro for my mill from here **LINK**

.

I had a reply from Ditron.
I said that I want scales for the Z axis and also ask for prices for 1um resolution scales also prices for the slim scales.

I measured the travel on my mill on the week end and I got the following measurements,

X 530 mm
Y 180 mm
Z 400 mm

What length should I go for?

: Re: DRO D60-3V Query

Dear Mark

Ok ,I got your point .
Here is my offer for the DRO D60-3V ,functional ，3 axis ，110USD EXW

Linear scale DC10-500MM(Travel) 5um resolution ,TTL output signal ,5V voltage ,53USD EXW
Linear scale DC10-140MM(Travel) 5um resolution ,TTL output signal ,5V voltage , 49USD EXW
Packages in total :8.5 KG .
Shipping the 3 items to AU by TNT:53USD

Kindly let me know do you prefer the terms of payment by T/T,Paypal ,Alibaba payment link ?
And your shipping address please

Your prompt reply will be appreciated so much
B.Rgrds

I would ask a couple of questions first:

How accurate do you need your scales to be? you mention 0.5um/0.000019" resolution for glass scales, would 0.05mm/0.002" resolution be good enough with say, Igaging style scales?

How accurate is your mill and to what tollerance are you looking to make parts?

If you are happy with paying $400-600 for your DRO, and you/your mill can hold very tight tollerances, then who am I to argue with you?

Personally I chose to use Igaging scales ($135.00 inc P&P from USA for all 3 axes) and TouchDRO from Yuriy's Toys for a total combined cost of under $200.00 which includes the cost of a 10" dedicated Android tablet.

I doubt my mill is rigid enough, and my manual machining is certainly not good enough, to hold better than 0.05mm on successive finished parts anyway.

Edited By Timothy Moores on 28/06/2016 13:51:53

I would say a scale needs to have length slightly longer than the actual "travel"

Yes, add at least a 100mm to the table length.

Clive

Just received 3-axis DRO kit from an Aliexpress seller for a BP mill. Sino brand which from Google appears to be reasonably reputable. International logistics impresses me, shipped from China last week on Tuesday evening, arrived by courier to my door less than 48 hours later. Only the X-axis installed yet, but certainly appears to be both accurate and repeatable.

I understand that many will feel more comfortable with a UK agent selling the same kit with a markup, with regards to support and in case of warranty issues, but my limited experience with Aliexpress so far has been good. I do try to screen the sellers and would not necessarily select the cheapest offer

Free shipping complete set SINO 3 axis Dro digital readout with 3 pcs KA-300 linear glass scale

Mark I would avoid them if cant answer with correct information, all the scales you will have less travel than now have which means putting set stops at ends of travels for X and Y.
Secondly the price will be higher going for longer.

Sino will be easy to fit, main scale unit two drill and tap holes that's it including the C type covers.

A scale unit will have a read head sliding inside of X length. Scale length as a minimum is X + actual travel don't go off manufacturers blurb.