Brian@VersaMil
Stainless
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2001
- Location
- Gaston, Oregon USA
A couple of years ago, I purchased an Acu-rite 300 series DRO for my Monarch 10EE lathe. I didn't support my local equipment distributor, but got it from a company in LA. The manual that came with this DRO sucks, and Acu-rite claims with the on screen tutorial, a person with an IQ of over fity should be able to get this thing to do more than just tell position. I can't get this DRO to do hardly anything. It's supposed to have tool presets, and numerous other features- I've tried for hours to get it set up, and so has another machinist. It would be just so nice to be able to slip in another Aloris toolholder, and have all the offsets dialed. NO SUCH LUCK. I've called Acu-rite on some other problem, of consistantly getting my DRO to read in the correct manner, and I still can't consistantly get it to do that. Move the compound in- my readout should get smaller- not larger. Most of the time it does, but sometimes it just seems to forget which way its going. SO I bought the best one they had, and I can't get it to do a thing. I'm not stupid- I've taught myself to program my CNC lathe in about a month by reading one book.
SO my gripe, is what's with companies documentation. If I was making a $2600.00 DRO, I would certainly write a manual that the average joe could use and figure out my unit. My VersaMil manual is a 150 pages long, and describes just about everything. The accurite manual just refers you to the onscreen prompts, which absolutely are pathetic. So does anyone have one of these DRO's and is able to get it to work like it should? AND if you do have it working, is it as nice as a CNC lathe that just pulls up the tool, and bingo, you're at the right measurement? In theory, it seems like a great unit, but the reality is I should have just got a two channel readout without the frills. Rant over
SO my gripe, is what's with companies documentation. If I was making a $2600.00 DRO, I would certainly write a manual that the average joe could use and figure out my unit. My VersaMil manual is a 150 pages long, and describes just about everything. The accurite manual just refers you to the onscreen prompts, which absolutely are pathetic. So does anyone have one of these DRO's and is able to get it to work like it should? AND if you do have it working, is it as nice as a CNC lathe that just pulls up the tool, and bingo, you're at the right measurement? In theory, it seems like a great unit, but the reality is I should have just got a two channel readout without the frills. Rant over