Dro advice for mill

Hi fellow enthusiasts I want to put a dro on my naerok mill.I’ve looked at various options from the cheapest on eBay (£250 all in no/little support),to a complete kit from machine dro which I’m leaning towards as they’ve been the most helpful so far.Can anyone share there experience/advice also I’m led to believe 1um scales are worth the extra? Do people agree?Also was debating the whole putting the scale on the rear of machine so looking for slim scales,but then there’s another school of thought to put it on the front?I am wanting to put a power feed on later but will make this myself.Any advice greatly appreciated.

I've been happy with my DRO from them. 5 micron will do unless you are making things to extremly fine limits in temperature controlled workshop, may people even turn of the last digit and work happily to 10microns (0.01mm)

I have my scale on the back and only lost about 5mm of Y movement. Travel stops for the power feed can then be fitted to the front slot

I fitted a standard Chinese DRO system from a well known dealer near Guildford to my ancient Victoria Elliot U2 milling machine. Scales on all three axes. It absolutely transformed the machine. It makes the machine far more accurate and productive.

To test it, using the PCD function, I centre drilled 6 holes on a 1" PCD on two separate pieces of 5/16 ally alloy plate. Drilled through with 5/16 drill. Made up 6 off 5/16 dowels which were a light push fit in the holes. All six would push into place whichever way I assembled the two plates. That was good enough for me!

John

That’s interesting thanks for your reply’s guys maybe I’m being overkill with the 1um scales then,so am I right in saying a 5um scale will measure to .0003” or thereabouts? The magnetic scale is lower in profile than a glass one,any thoughts on this or the front or rear mount?

They display 0.005mm or 0.0002" increments

Edited By JasonB on 17/02/2023 19:27:49

Ah right I see that’s more than enough for what I want,anybody have any views on glass or magnetic scales then?

Some reading here

Should add that I've purchased a low-cost Chinese system for my  WM16B mill, with glass scales. I'm very happy with it so far; ie about 6 months use.

Edited By Clive Brown 1 on 17/02/2023 20:49:28

I can't praise enough Machine DRO for customer support although it was related to the lathe rather than the mill. I have 3 axis magnetic scales on the mill and 2 axis on the lathe. I found them easy to fit and far less bulky than the glass ones. I would also agree with Jason 5 microns is more than adequate for most model engineering, in my case often the nearest 0.5mm but they do make hitting it much easier. Wouldn't want to be without them.

Regards

Martin

Thanks for the advice guys it’s a bit clearer now,will probably go with machine dro and get magnetic scales.

I used digital scales from Arc on my Naerok, cut to length and under custom metal covers. No scale for Z axis, but I have one for the quill. 0.01mm resolution, and still catalogued.

...and if the angles get too weird, there is always the trusty 3D printer

best, Robin

I used M-DRO three times for work - 2 installations using a basic 2 axis display with one (Harrison lathe) using glass scales and the other (Tool pre-setter) using magnetic scales + another single axis basic counter with a magnetic slide unit on a large belt sander table.

The Harrison installation was a replacement for a failed Anilam display & was cheaper than getting a replacement head unit for the Anilam. The pre-setter was a replacement for two failed independant capacitive readouts. The belt sander was replacement for a capacitive readout that really didn't get along with graphite dust.

The only "issues" I had were calibrating the magnetic scales - one was mounted directly on an aluminium extrusion, the other on a stainless steel bar in place of the Trimos capacitive scales & neither read accurately when checked with slip gauges as installed, requiring use of the linear calibration feature in the head unit. This was a "do it once" requirement, so not really a problem. The head unit did fail to start up after a lengthy period of disuse once, but an e-mail to M-DRO got the issue sorted promptly (there was a "hidden" reset button ). The magnetic scale on th belt sander occasionally mis-read due to build-up of fine metallic dust on the scale (some man-made graphite has iron filings in the mix to increase strength) - easliy cured with a puff of compressed air.

For home use I have a Chinese Jingce 3 axis head unit & 5 micron glass scales for my FB2 clone milling machine. Only had it rigged up off the machine to make sure that it worked on arrival so far. I went this route because it was around half the price of an M-DRO equivalent & my pockets are not as deep as my former employer ! Time will tell if that was a false economy.

WRT resolution - the basic Heidenhain two axis systems used by Bridegport on manual turret mills were 10 micron resolution. Can't recall anyone suggesting that these were not adequate, so 5 micron should be more than adequate for a basic mill.

Nigel B.

It has been recommended to me that I buy and install a DRO to my mini mill, SX2P.

Being completely new to the idea of drilling and tapping my new mill to fit such a thing I am nervous and seeking some guidance/ encouragement ! Most of the articles I have seen talk about features and types but don't really get to the nitty gritty of actually attacking the machine.

Ideally someone will have produced a point by point guide on how to do this on such a small machine, I know its a big ask, but does anyone know of such guidance please?

I have done 4 machines so far with magnetic scales from Mdro and EMS and all work really well, have also fitted cheap scales and read outs to a sherline mill and they work as well (bracketed was a bit of a nightmare). As people have said before it gives greater confidence and also speeds up the process.

There is a usefully detailed pdf of the Warco DRO Installation guide available in the public domain which you can find at;

https://www.primadilna.cz/fotky49990/fotov/_ps_3044Warco-DRO-Install-Manual.pdf

(..it is a 'safe' / bona fide Czech Engineering suppliers site..)

..the instructions are clear and will enable you to see what is involved, and might give you a feel of what will be required to carry out successful installation yourself.

Many thanks this looks very helpful, P.McD

Go for the three mm decimal places - whatever it might be.

Reason is that sometimes you may need to be ultra precise - - at least erring on tne one side of the second digit.

Basic 0.01mm may appear close enough but look at the tolerances in the spec. A digit out in the last decimal place one way and then the other can very occasionally be a bear. Thinking here of shrink fitting, as much as anything.

Will do thank you, P.McD

I got my 2 axis dro for mill for £125 from Vevor. Excellent. Had to do some drilling and one axis is not well guarded.

I got 2 axis DRO for myford from machine DRO. A better final install. I don't notice any improvement in operation over Vevor.

So I'm not much help. I'd consider machine DRO if they have an install kit specific to your mill, but the cheapest DRO is working well for me.

Thank you for your your advice.