Even a digital caliper for a tenner fitted to your cross slide is reliable and good for 100th of a milimeter

Anything with a battery should be checked every month or two for leakage though

Edited By Ady1 on 30/10/2012 11:13:48

I am in the process of fitting scales (Glass) to my X3 mill, be aware that the sizes do not fit all aspects and you need to measure the available space very carefully. Particularly the depth of the set up.

At the moment I only have the 'Z' axis fitted as I have had to change a slide because it did not fit the space for the 'X' axis. You may have to dismantle parts of the machine to fit the 'Y' scale.

The display unit is brilliant and works fine on the one scale fitted. Slanting lines of holes, PCD in dia and number of holes and also milling contoured surfaces convex and concave. Measurement down to 5Microns. and even allowance for shrinkage for plastic moulds.

The Lathe fitting is a bit less advanced and as such i think one of these Digital verniers with the scale at rightangles to the scale is better suited for the lathe.

Clive

Hello John, I did consider fitting one to the lathe but as yet have not got around to it, I know that a reading applied will take double the cut but all I would be interested in is repeating the last reading/cut. Maybe already measured with another vernier.

I think ArcEuro do them, users say that they gunge up if cutting fluid is used, but most of us apply it with a brush.

Other than that I cannot answer the question and am sure someone will come along soon with a credible answer.

Clive

I did a digital aids thread a while back

Modern stuff is great, I can even screwcut metric threads under constant power on an imperial lathe

I don't use coolant though, just a wee bitty of oil

The caliper has to be lined up very carefully to work properly when it's mounted, otherwise you get a jerky reading

once it's done properly though, it's great

Edited By Ady1 on 30/10/2012 23:59:02

You seem to have come to that conclusion very quickly. Take a look at the glass scales and see the rubber seals and the additional extruded covers that fit them. These offer far greater protection than a digital scale just fixed to the machine and with the readout away from the dirt that also stays clean.

If you really want a robust ststem which I assume you mean by expensive then the Spherosyn and Microsyn scales for example can almost be run submerged in suds if you wanted.

Like several others above have said I took the digital scales off my mill as they were just too problematic.

J

John ,

I have tried this to no avail as the readouts are stable and work well but thanks for the tip anyhow .

I will try running the regulator unit from a battery to see if there is a change and if there is i have a noise problem with the swichmode powerpack.

If not i will try running the scale from its original battery and see what happens then switch over and run the display on its own battery.

If all else fails i will scream at it and threaten it with my largest hammer !

Probably won't do anything but i will feel better!

I followed your link for the DRO's and purchased a 3 axis kit for less than i can buy a display unit from my local supplier !

Thank you !

Now i have to wait for it to turn up so i can get my grubby little fingers on it !

Ian

I have that very system from that very supplier in Nottingham and it works perfectly.

If you phone Colin Robinson, the proprietor, I'm sure you will find him extremely helpful.

I collected mine from him directly and Colin answered all my questions and also pointed out various alternative options.

Martin.

Hi Robin.

Yes you are correct and there were a few vendors on Ebay but i chose that one because everything that was advertised i could see in the pictures including the name of the manufacturer .

Another seller was selling a similar unit but it just had a model number on the front .

After transfering the money across i received an E-mail from JJ very quickly thanking me and asking what scale lengths i needed and another a few hours later to let me know it had been shipped .

Very efficient !

The E-bay feedback on this seller are 100% positive also .

As Martin stated you can get it direct in the UK but here in Australia mine will come direct from china so if you can pick it up yourself that will save you some cash .

Ian

I am one of those satisfied customers John mentions. I did my SX3 Mill and the transformation was unbelievable. I've just done my lathe and its a different machine. I can now concentrate making things accurately rather than trying to remember where I am with my counting. The built in functions move the machines to another dimension.

Pete

Unless you are squirting so much cutting fluid that it and swarf are flying all over the shop, in your eyes, up you nose etc., I think you are worrying unduly with this. If you mount it in the "customary" position up at eye level I don't think you'll have any problem. At least I never have.

You might want to consider mounting it to one of the small, light-duty LCD tilt/swivel mounts that are available inexpensively these days. You can then position it for comfortable viewing wherever you are standing.

As for the scales, simple covers that shield the scale from the direction of flying swarf/fluid are normally sufficient. (This is easier to implement on a mill that the lathe I think). In fact, on my original mill setup, I simply taped a flap of plastic sheet to hang down over it and ran with that for a couple of years. It fell off once or twice and was taped back on but it did the job perfectly well.

I started with capacitive scales and they worked OK for me but sometimes with some dither in the last digit. They are also known to be somewhat noise prone and vary in which side of the supply is grounded – important if you are powering from an external source.

I later bought three 5 um Ditron optical glass scales direct from China (300mm, 200mm and 60mm) for $53 each and they have been wonderful and have first level sealing against swarf/fluid ingress. (There was a $75 shipping charge although they got to me in Canada in 2 days). Some people in the Shumatech Yahoo group are doing bulk purchases to split the shipping and also to get a slight discount on the scales. Ditron also sell readouts for a decent price.

Edited By Sid Herbage on 02/11/2012 15:12:20

In a way, you've hit the nail on the head. Once they have gone this route, people no longer consider it a luxury.

[ BTW – you seem to have, deliberately or accidentally, added a background colour to your text – in this case grey so it isn't showing against the normal background (but does in the emailed version), If you are experimenting in that direction, please, please reconsider. There's already one person around here doing it (with a sickly yellow that I presume he considers kewl) and I hope it doesn't catch on. Most people set up their browsers with text and background colours that they are comfortable with and don't need others forcing their own preferences.

Sorry – that turned out to be a bit of a rant. ]