Cheap DROs: Any good?

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Greg_Lewis
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Location: Fresno, CA

Cheap DROs: Any good?

Post by Greg_Lewis »

OK, I know what you're going to say, "You get what you pay for." But I could benefit from x and y DROs on my little Clausing 8530 mill for an upcoming project, and I see various iterations of these out there for less than $100, and some less than $50. I don't really care if they last forever; I just want them to be accurate. Up to this point I've zeroed out the dials and counted turns, which works well, but I'd rather not have to think about that along with the backlash in the loose lead screw nuts as this will be a complicated project and the consequences of a screwup could ruin a whole day's work.

So have any of you tried these budget DROs and were you satisfied? THANKS!
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
armscor 1
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Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 3:12 am
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Re: Cheap DROs: Any good?

Post by armscor 1 »

I have one on the mill and another on the lathe with glass scales, going strong after approx 2 years, no issues.
Jon W
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Joined: Tue Nov 24, 2020 1:59 pm

Re: Cheap DROs: Any good?

Post by Jon W »

A while back I built a Touch DRO kit and paired it with a used seven dollar android tablet (ebay) and two Shars scales (also ebay) for my little mill. It’s been fantastic - a real game changer. Maybe a little more of an investment than you’re looking at, but well worth considering if your budget can handle it.
Jon W
Somewhere North of Boston
RickBarb
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Location: Cape Cod, MA

Re: Cheap DROs: Any good?

Post by RickBarb »

I installed 3 cheap readouts ($65) each on my mini-mill. One failed after 6 months or so. But the replacement and the other 2 are working O.K. I have been very satisfied with my setup. I have been able to work around any backlash problems. I wouldn't be without them. Probably not good enough for someone who makes their living as a machinist. Rick
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Charles T. McCullough
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Re: Cheap DROs: Any good?

Post by Charles T. McCullough »

I have DROs on my lathe, but the batteries last all of about 1 week if I leave them in. Trouble is, they are held in behind a small plastic door that is held shut with a small Phillips head mini-teeny-tiny screw that threads into the plastic housing of the DRO and the threads in the plastic don't last long with constantly removing and re-inserting the screw (even when I carefully turn the screw the wrong way at first when reinstalling it, to be sure it falls into the same threads instead of cutting new ones).
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Also, chips and metal dust got into both of them. One no longer works at all and the other has so much dust and chips between the LCD display and the plastic window over it, that some segments of the numbers are not readable anymore. (Is that a 4, or a 9? Is that a 1 or a 7?) I have no idea how chips that big got into something I can't figure out how to take apart to clean!
rrnut-2
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Re: Cheap DROs: Any good?

Post by rrnut-2 »

I bought a set of cheap DRO's off Ebay. When I got it, it didn't have an outer case for the readout. Nothing was said about that in the listing. Oh well, they were cheap!

Jim B
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Greg_Lewis
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Re: Cheap DROs: Any good?

Post by Greg_Lewis »

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Looks like they will work for what I need.
Greg Lewis, Prop.
Eyeball Engineering — Home of the dull toolbit.
Our motto: "That looks about right."
Celebrating 35 years of turning perfectly good metal into bits of useless scrap.
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