# Fitted my DRO



## seaco (14 Dec 2013)

*Over the last few days I've fitted my DRO thought you may like to see!*


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## nathandavies (14 Dec 2013)

that looks lovely, loads of metal, loads of shed, and loads of wires. what does it do?


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## porker (14 Dec 2013)

Hi Lee,
How did you find the fitting? It looks like a SINO DRO? I have been considering this for my Bridgeport for some time although as I have decided to move house I will probably postpone until the workshop is moved. These appear to be excellent value for money and certainly look the business. I have had enough of reading the imperial dials, accommodating backlash and converting to metric when required. 

Be interested to hear how it has improved using the machine and your general impressions
cheers
Matt


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## Harbo (14 Dec 2013)

Very nice - what Mill do you have?

Rod


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## Lons (14 Dec 2013)

nathandavies":1s3wi66e said:


> that looks lovely, loads of metal, loads of shed, and loads of wires. what does it do?



Me too? :? 

Took the words out of my mouth.

Bob


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## porker (14 Dec 2013)

What does it do?
Digital Read Out

Measures X,Y and Z travel down to less than a thou. Works on glass scales fixed to the axis of the mill and generally makes life easier as machine wear and backlash are effectively compensated for.
HTH


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## Myfordman (14 Dec 2013)

Lee, 
Have you lost any Y axis travel due to the X scale? Mine is mounted on the front of my table to avoid any loss.
Essentially the same machine as yours -a VMC from Myford - who else LOL

MM


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## nathandavies (14 Dec 2013)

how much does such a thing cost?


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## jasonB (14 Dec 2013)

You won't regret it, I've had them on my mill for about 2 years now and would not go back to a machine without them.

No only will they give an accurate position of the workpiece to 0.0002" they have hand functions like PCD which will equally space any given number of holes around a circle or arc. Place a given number of holes equally along a given length and direction of line and if you can understand the instruction book allow you to use standard cutters to machine curves like this profile.


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## seaco (14 Dec 2013)

Rod/Bob as Porker says really they are scales for reading the X,Y and Z and Rod the make is Denford although they have different badges put on them also called a VMC or 626 I think Grizzly and Myford do virtually the same mill..

Matt the make of mine is Sinpo but yes they all seem to be the same DRO systems again with different badges, fitting was straightforward although slow as I hadn't done one before, the Z axis (the knee) was the hardest as the scale has to be square in both axis and as you can see in the pics the mills column is tapered so that took me a whole day to sort, but I must say it's brilliant and worth every penny and you wont be disappointed!

Myfordman since I have taken the pic I have reduced the depth of the guard on the X axis by about 10mm which has helped, I have a bellows type guard on the ways and this limits the Y axis a little already and I've measured it at about another 5mm loss, I can live with this as I can keep the length guides at the front of the table and anything big on the mill I can always pull the head forward for more room...


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## seaco (14 Dec 2013)

Nathan it cost £369 delivered and it's worth every penny...


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## Lons (14 Dec 2013)

Ah right!

My neighbour made his own for his Myford machine, but then he was an electronics engineer, worked for RS for a while. sadly with us no longer.

Bob


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## paultnl (14 Dec 2013)

I think a Raspberry Pi and a bit of tinkering could soon beat the £369 price.


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## porker (14 Dec 2013)

There are a load of people who have pulled apart cheap digital callipers and wired them through an Arduino or RaspPi or similar but you still need the scales and display and to get scales long enough for this size mill the cost is pretty good.


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## seaco (14 Dec 2013)

As Porker says once you've bought all the parts I don't think you'll be far behind plus I wouldn't know how, good luck though if you go that route!


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## Metal_Gazza (10 Jan 2014)

Nice job... Any problems with coolant or swarf messing up the scales?


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## seaco (10 Jan 2014)

Hi, no I don't have any problems with swarf etc as the scales a very well protected, I don't know how I did without them best thing I've added by a long way!


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