Hi Ken

I installed an M-DRO magnetic DRO on my SX2.7 last year, if your interested I can put up some pics.

Regards

Martin

If you look at this thread: **LINK** last couple of pages you can see how I installed the magnetic tape and read heads, you can also mount the tape on a profile like Jed Martins did. The read heads are diy, but the principle is still the same.

I did not want to drill any holes into my machines, so all brackets are bonded with adhesive. Holding out well so far.

KenJ: I've just uploaded photos of my installation – I bought the Easson 3-Axis with Magnetic scales from Machine-DRO and installed this on my Sieg SX3 last week.

Please see the posting headed 'Sieg SX3 and Machine-DRO 3-Axis Kit' for more information. I hope there's something there that helps. For interest, I installed the Z-axis scale and reader inside the column.

Cheers,

Mike

Ken,

I wondered whether you came across several things about the DRO that I was disappointed about:

1) The 'Universal' brackets are generally too large for a home milling machine, and custom brackets therefore have to be made.

2) The manual has a very poor translation to English and is inconsistent in its terminology. The radius functions really illustrate how poor this is. I would have excused the large title of 'Basic Fucntions' on page 1 if the technical content was well written.

3) The two radius functions on the display are transposed. When you press the 'Simplified R' button (large R), it actually gives you the more complex (small R with a graphical symbol) radius function, and vice versa!

4) Wouldn't it be easier for an arc function to need to specify the centre coordinate, radius and start and end angles, rather than the centre coordinate, radius and start and end coordinates?

5) The manual gives no information on the limitations of the radius functions, for example I am trying to find out whether I can cut a wide arc in the XZ direction, as in the illustration below. For a DRO with a graphical screen, I am sure the radius function could be made far more intuitive to use with better software and a well-written manual.

6) The right-most function on the display MR (memory recall) does not seem to have any effect when pressed, and is not explained in the manual.

If anyone from Machine_DRO is a member of ME, I'd be interested in their comments, including whether there is a software update available to solve any of these problems.

Mike

Edited By Mike Donnerstag on 27/04/2020 21:02:16

Can you post some pics and details which heads and tape you bought. I want a similar system on my SX2.7 but finding that there are so many different type to choose from.

I was very disappointed with a recent quote from M-DRO for my lathe after they supplied a 2-axis set for my mill. A staggering increase from £353 this time last year to £418 for the same thing with shorter magnetic scales.

LOL, I think its the M-DRO pricing Ian, I just checked and the mill order was placed in October not April. In fact I asked them at the Warwick show what their best price was which was £30 more than the quote they had given me!