Help DRO MILL what to Buy ?

[Joe Tanski]

I have a 9x42 Bridgeport J head and i want to add DRO's to the Mill.after reading all the info on Ebay and the Info from DRO PROS ,Thinking of putting on all three axis's ,what would guys recommend
Question : what works best ? who has the best units? do i want Glass scales or Magnetic , and what's the most bang for the Buck (Dro Unit & dealer )

Thank You
Joe

[magic9r]

I'm using SINO DROs with glass scales on my mill and lathe, they've been running for about 8 years now without any issues.
I'm in the UK so I can't help with suppliers & prices but it's worth looking at what Machine DRO supply here in the UK -

http://www.machine-dro.co.uk/digital-re ... cales.html

Points of interest are their 4-axis USB PC interface which allows angular readout -

http://www.machine-dro.co.uk/digital-re ... rface.html

and 2 encoder summing interface which allows knee & quill outputs to be combined-

http://www.machine-dro.co.uk/digital-re ... rface.html

Regards,
Nick

[Bill Shields]

Joe:

I purchased a lathe set from DRO PROs (back of LSORR magazine).

It is a very nice product, exactly as advertised, zero problems.

I will do it again when my Accu-Rite (30 years old) finally dies on my Wells-Index

[Joe Tanski]

Thanks Bill will go that way
Joe

[rrnut-2]

I too will recommend DRO PROs. I have them on my lathe and a friend has them on his VERY large boring mill. Work great.

Jim B

[Joe Tanski]

Thank you I will purchase from them
Joe

[spinningwheels]

I bought direct fron the factory in China a ditron DRO
After a bit over a year I got a problem with it , but factory send replacement parts for free.
Think the price is a lot better than from DRO pro´s

[Metalman]

I bought direct fron the factory in China a ditron DRO
After a bit over a year I got a problem with it , but factory send replacement parts for free.
Think the price is a lot better than from DRO pro´s

Can you share more information? Where exactly you bought, what exactly did you get, what problems.
I ask because I've been researching DRO's for a possible purchase, haven't heard of ditron and didn't come up with much in the way of details or prices searching online.

[spinningwheels]

I bought a 4 axis DRO with 0,001 mm scales , the problem was that the DRO stoped working ith just some strange symbols on the display´s , did send a pic of it ti the factory and that was enough to have them send a new unit.
on alibaba you can find them but better contact sales@dcoee.com Oscar He has rather good englisch,
They just make one of the many Sino clones.
The 4 axis dro with RPM disply function was around 115 usd

remco

[RET]

Hi Joe,

In case you are interested, I've been using a Sony Magnescale LH10 three axis digital readout for 30 years now with no problems of any kind. It does both inch and metric and goes down to 1 micron (half a tenth) on the readout although the Bridgeport I've mounted it on can't work to that degree of accuracy. I have it set (all 3 axes) at 2 tenths which is a good compromise.

I know it isn't the cheapest readout and I don't know of anyone else who has one, but it works very well and I would recommend it.

Most people are happy with 2 axes, but I've found there are times when that 3rd axis is indispensable; for instance if you are using a right angle attachment and you want to mill accurately or lay out holes to a thou or less.

Hope this helps a bit. I've found that Bill Shields is one of many on these forums who is always worth listening to.

Richard Trounce.

[Bill Shields]

I really like the sony magnescale products also, but their $$$ is a little out of the range that I am willing to pay these days.

for the $$, these things from dropro are quite good.

the only complaint that I have is that when entering a position from the keyboard, sometimes I will enter 2.500 -> upon pressing ENTER, I see 2.4999

my work is SO ACCURATE that the missing 0.0001 is .....