Digital Read Out (DRO) on a 10EE

I'm contemplating putting a DRO on my modular 10EE. (Home shop use.)

I'd be curious to see pictures of installations that others have done, or any other Do's and Don'ts. What's the best way to mount the scale on the cross slide ?

I shared mine back in 2013 on my round dial 10EE. One of the best things I've done for the old lathe. I'd recommend the Newall DP700 and going with it in kit form pretty much setup for a 10EE out of the box.

I found the kits at Cando Machinery in California. I think it's the same kit made for a similar sized Hardinge lathe, and I think I had to make one or two special parts to get it all to fit. Kit number is DP78M0520M05ML. But the install was super easy, they shipped quickly even considering I didn't want to make the purchase a credit card transaction. So I spoke to them by phone and informed them I'd be sending a bank draft. They notified me upon receiving that and got it to me quickly.

The DRO is an improvement I use all the time, it goes on just after the start button for the lathe gets pushed. One thing I might point out, you really need a rigid tool post and repeatable tool holders to get the most out of a DRO. I'm in the process of improving my KDK tool post. I've found that it can be rotated by cutting pressure, especially during deep boring operations where the boring bar acts as a long lever. Took me some time to figure out what was happening, but the cause was obvious...tapered bores. Well, obvious after I figured out my measurements were telling me my bores were tapered.

Didn't mean to change the subject, just wanted to point out a potential weak point. I'm starting to see guys who have replaced the compounds with shop made tool posts who complained about rigidity with their previous standard tool post setups. Part of that in regard to DRO's. That's not an option I'd ever consider, I use the rotation ability of the compound quite often. Just saying pay attention to your setup.

Regards
Bob

Thanks - Re the 1st picture in the 3rd post, it looks like you but some sort of sheet metal 'roof' over the cross slide scale?

The scale comes with a right angle extrusion to mount over the scale.

Yep, like mentioned in post #4, that came with the kit. Only part I made is in pic #4, the rusty angle iron piece. Oh, except for the part that the readout support round post mounts to, that was done on my mill to fit existing screws that held the original light on. Then the light reattached to the new mount.

Bob

I put a cheaper DRO on. It has been great for several years. It's a Sino.
Only lost like a half inch quill length. I cut a little out of the tail stock wiper to keep it as close as possible.

I installed a Newall c-80. Using the Micro-Syn scale on the cross slide. Very small diameter, so little loss of travel.No magic needed for install. The T/A caused me to mount the Z scale under the casting for the T/A.
DRO is the best addition to any manual machine.

The C-80 has a tool offset menu, a real joy if you plan many steps to the workpiece, or many pieces to make.

Yeah - Loss of travel between the cross slide and tailstock was my main concern. The Newall DP500 looks pretty nice - I'll need to re-calibrate myself to the $1050 price, however...

OK, so it's been a year, and I have a DRO. I selected a DROPro mag scale model.

I'm pondering the location for the readout. Seems 'obvious' to me ( a right hander) to put it on the right (tailstock) side of the machine. Yet many or maybe most of the installation pics I see show it on the headstock end.

Why?

Alternately, why not have it fixed to the carriage ? - it's not very heavy...

Jim McIntyre said:

OK, so it's been a year, and I have a DRO. I selected a DROPro mag scale model.

I'm pondering the location for the readout. Seems 'obvious' to me ( a right hander) to put it on the right (tailstock) side of the machine. Yet many or maybe most of the installation pics I see show it on the headstock end.

Why?

Alternately, why not have it fixed to the carriage ? - it's not very heavy...

Click to expand...

The main determinant is whether / how much / WHERE one has to sacrifice travel, clearance, or use of some other "feature".

More than one of the several Monarch 10EE travel rests - including one I have - attach HS-side to an OEM threaded hole towards center of the cross. No matter how seldom I might USE a travel rest, I'd not want to block that area with a DRO scale.

HS side probably has higher count of impacts from part-offs, the odd "oops' with nose-art and workpiece changes, more coolant & chips..

TS-side mostly just costs a small penalty in reduced "togetherness".

I can't see where which "handedness" the OPERATOR holds matters a whit to the scale.

Readout display positioning & "eye dominance"? Even then, only "sometimes".

My question regards the location of the readout box, not the scales...

So what are the "sometimes" you had in mind?

Jim McIntyre said:

My question regards the location of the readout box, not the scales...

So what are the "sometimes" you had in mind?

Click to expand...

THAT should be easily repositionable within some reasonable range - eg: not "just anywhere" but so that you can shift it mebbe 6 to 12 inches left-right (10EE have small work-envelopes) and even up-down, plus definitely be able to angle the face of it when glare makes it hard to read.

"Sometimes" one is doing faceplate work, sometimes a large feature has to be addressed at TS end, and it is nice to be able to have the DRO in line of sight with minimal distraction when looking at display, tooltip, display, tooltip, etc.

Gilding a Lily, perhaps, but once all those electronics are "there", it isn't hard as electron-pushing goes to add a "repeater" readout for each axis right about where the mechanical dials have always been.

Pondering over these options meself - not for my 10EE's - they don't gain much from a DRO - but for my HBX-360-BC, the older all-manual that preceded these ones:

http://www.cazeneuve.fr/webuploads/display/75/01 OPTICA 360.jpg

Note dual displays, pylon mount above, plus another at the carriage controls, each multi-mode / combined mode as THESE ones are general-purpose display panels, not alphameric-only.

The HBX-360-BC is an inherently METRIC machine that can cut gobs of "Whitworth" threads too, so a DRO would serve me well as translator.