DRO for a Boxford

I would like to fit a DRO to my Boxford, but my lathe has a taper turning attachment, so the cross-slide gets narrower and sticks out at the rear. Machine DRO sell a kit to fit a standard Boxford that fits in the cross-slide, but this would prevent the use of the taper turning attachment. The other thing I would like, is not to limit the saddle travel and how close the tailstock can go to the saddle.

Has anyone fitted a DRO to a Boxford with taper turning attachment? If so can you let me know how you did it?

Thanks,

Baldric.

I have a DRO fitted to my carriage, which can also be used on the cross-slide (although I never use it that way nowadays).

The DRO is based on a wire which unwinds or retracts from a small box with a readout. I have a couple of these, and as I recall I bought them from BW Electronics, who used to advertise in ME. I believe they stopped supplying DROs some years ago, and may well have stopped trading at that time.

That's maybe no help, but I will say that the wire method has a lot going for it, as the wire can be routed through pulleys or pins. On the pillar drill, I run the wire around two pulleys on its way to the end of the quill, while the readout is attached further up the head.

Marcus

I would fit the DRO on the tailstock side for sure, too muc going on att he chuck side. I fitted on eon my Monarch and was also concerned about the tailstock fouling the scale but I got over this by using a stop bolt which stopped the tailstock just short of striking the DRO scale or reader.

Since you have to allow for the odd shaped cross slide, the lock screw for the compound and the gib adjusters I would use a couple of stand-offs to mount the scale and use a cut-down key to make any adjustments. You may have to do what I did and drill/tap for jacking screws for the reader head mount if your casting is not flat enough to keep it all square.

You WILL lose some travel and tailstock motion doing this though, no getting around that but you can reduce the penalty by fitting a slim scale, or look into perhaps fitting a magnetic strip scale and reader on the underside like they do for the Myford 7. The DRO more than makes up for this for me I would not be without it. Mine also has a taper function which you can use not only to measure a taper but to dial in your attachment for cutting them.

Could you not bury it inside the crosslide?. There ought to be enough room as I managed to do it on a S7.

I have seen these systems, I have always wondered is the swarf from drilling could ever catch on the wire, pulling it & affect the reading, hence I have not really considered them, is this a real problem?

I have looked at fitting it inside the cross-slide, I can't see where I would fit it, there is the slot for the taper turning attachment & holes where the cross-slide feed bolts to, see the pictures, without the attachment fitted. Sorry for the mess, I was mid production of a batch of nuts.

The underside looks like this, taken later, when I had finished the nuts.

More details of it are to be found at lathes.co.uk.

The Machine DRO attachment for the normal cross-slide extends the cross-slide out the back, you then machine a slot in the main casting & extension for the magnetic tape, this would interfere with the taper turning attachment.

Mounting the scale on the side would probably mean 1" of lost travel towards the tail-stock, I already find I am often against this as I try to keep the tailstock in as far as possible so it has the support of the body.

It may be that what I am trying to do is not practical.

Baldric,

I have not had any real problems with mine. I do occasionally drip cutting oil onto the cable, but that has not caused any problems. I have sometimes also bumped inot the cable with my hand or my jar of cutting oil, but that's not a problem. What you can't do is move the slide at high speed, as the electronics can't catch up. The display alerts me by flashing, and I reset it. So that is occasionally a nuisance as I tend to lose any reference position.

The big plus, for me, is that the counter/display unit has 9 different Datums, so, if I am using a four-way toolpost, I can set a Datum for each tool, then press a button to call up the Datum for each tool as I use it.

Marcus

Baldric

Is there any possibility of fitting a "bare" magnetic strip system to the taper turning attachment?

I'd envisage a steel or alloy plate fixed to the top of the attachment overhanging one side yet narrow enough so as not to interfere with the nut or bolt that holds the attachment slider when in use. The magnetic strip being fitted under the plate so as to be adequately protected with the reader mounted facing upwards on suitable bracket overhung from the saddle. I'd imagine 3 mm or 1/8" would be thick enough for the plate. Probably need to make your own compact reader case tho'.

If such a system could be finagled in you'd probably have to accept that setting the taper attachment would become rather more fiddly.

Clive