Dros for mini mills

Discussion on all milling machines vertical & horizontal, including but not limited to Bridgeports, Hardinge, South Bend, Clausing, Van Norman, including imports.

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Paulc
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2019 2:50 pm

Dros for mini mills

Post by Paulc »

Any recommendations for a DRO system for mini mills that won't cost more than the mill itself? :)
atunguyd
Posts: 199
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2009 9:39 pm
Location: Durban South Africa

Re: Dros for mini mills

Post by atunguyd »

Pick up a cheap or second hand Android tablet some scales and build your own

https://www.yuriystoys.com/p/android-dro.html

You will actually end up with a DRO that has more software capability than any professional model

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Paulc
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2019 2:50 pm

Re: Dros for mini mills

Post by Paulc »

Already have the tablet.
I'll take a look at Yuris site to see what else is needed.
pete
Posts: 2518
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Re: Dros for mini mills

Post by pete »

Maybe more software capability but my Newall is pretty decent. :-) And yeah I know, that's way more $$$$. However the whole reason for adding a dro is to gain a higher degree of accuracy and no back lash compensation. I'd argue some of those cheap caliper type scales are fairly low on the accuracy level when you start looking at there allowable + - one count repeatability against some proper scales. So it depends on what your expecting and what level of accuracy is wanted. And more than a few have had issues with those caliper types long term durability. They don't stand up too well to cutting fluids or chips unless you do a very good job of adding protective guarding. If you move up to using the better dro specific scales with Yuriy's design, then given some of the costs today for some of the cheap off shore dros you aren't saving a whole lot against buying one of those.
Paulc
Posts: 21
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2019 2:50 pm

Re: Dros for mini mills

Post by Paulc »

Also good points to ponder
atunguyd
Posts: 199
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2009 9:39 pm
Location: Durban South Africa

Re: Dros for mini mills

Post by atunguyd »

Yeah Pete but as I stood the touch dro had a massive advantage software wise.
Connect it to a taco on your mill and it will show you your tooth loading as you are cranking your hand wheels so that you can get the ideal cut.
It can store literally an unlimited number of points and tool offsets and had many differnt patterns to choose between.
A commercial DRO with all these features will be very expensive

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pete
Posts: 2518
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2009 6:04 am

Re: Dros for mini mills

Post by pete »

Good points also. There's gains and trade offs with pretty much anything were adding to our shops I guess.
whateg0
Posts: 1114
Joined: Sat Mar 28, 2009 3:54 pm
Location: Wichita, KS

Re: Dros for mini mills

Post by whateg0 »

Something like that has some appeal to me even. My Newport knee Mill has a mitutoyo Dro on it now. But it is a very basic interface. your house absolute and incremental and preset but none of the fancy tools for doing cool patterns and things like that. I wonder what the compatibility is like with the scales that I have already
john shaw
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2020 8:14 pm

Re: Dros for mini mills

Post by john shaw »

I have a benchmaster mill. I bought a set of I-gaging scales on ebay. Also got a blue tooth Touch DRO from Yuries Toys. In total I spent around 200.00 and I must say it works great. I designed the mounting hardware and installed everything. Good luch with your endevors. and always remember

Yesterday is history
Tomorrow a mystery
Today is a gift:
Thats why they call it "the present"
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