DRO Y axis not working

Hi all, Im in the process of tiding up my brideport mill, not had it long just trying to get everything working up to scratch again.

It has a Anilam Wizard 150 DRO fitted to it both X and Z axis work great however the Y axis readout isnt working right, it just flickers when you move the table along the Y axis, or jumps.

I check the wires seem to be ok along the path to the readout unit an the connections to the unit too are good, so I wiggled it around on the slider itself, nothing.

So I decided to unbolt it from the knee, moved it back an forth along the scale an it just flickers, so I stripped it down never taken one apart before but thought id have a look, its a glass type one inside also had a small ball bearing that came out, cleaned the slides down inside an managed to get the ball bearing back in place an fitted it back togther (bit fiddley) still doesnt work, but if I move it really really slow it does actually work, the little plastic strip that goes on one side of the glass scale seems to drag back abit rather then move with the slider wondering if it needs to be fixed with the slider and something has been lost if its been apart before? if not may have to get a new scale

Any thoughts be appreciated
cheers, Jake

Have you tried to swap one of the other axis to the Y input, to rule out the DRO electronics?

You have to clean with isoprophyl alcohol and something lint free. The slightest dirt or lint on a reader head will screw them up.
JR

ignator said:

Have you tried to swap one of the other axis to the Y input, to rule out the DRO electronics?

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Yeah tried that the dro its self is fine

JRIowa said:

You have to clean with isoprophyl alcohol and something lint free. The slightest dirt or lint on a reader head will screw them up.
JR

Click to expand...

Ill have to get some of that and give it a try, thanks

The system is an Anilam B5, im sure I could get a new scale for it just trying to fine one the right length, I measured the whole scale as being 365mm but the closest one on the net says 14" or 355mm so that must be it, would like the same scale but I just can't find an Anilam scale of that type or length

Is the glass in the scale vertical or is it horizontal up against the top of the scale housing? It's next to impossible to find a replacement reader head for the vertical glass, but you can get a new Acu-Rite scale and it will work for your Wizard 211.

Jon

Hi all,
I'll just glom onto this old thread instead of creating a new one. So, I now have the old Mitutoyo 2axis DRO with glass scales on my new-to-me Lagun FTV2 working fairly well. X-axis is fine, at least as far as I can tell. The Y axis is however behaving really strangely, and the behavior did not change at all after a pretty good cleaning. Here is the scenario. Both before and after the cleaning, when I flushed it out with some spray solvent, it began to work perfectly. But as soon as it dries, it goes back to not picking up the travel. This is very repeatable. I don't think the spray (a very safe one I use on lots of electronics and hydraulics) is affecting the electronics, because the odds are more that it would interfere instead of make them transmit counts just right, I'd think. Maybe the wet surface is making up for optical perfections or rough glass surface? Any ideas? I'd rather continue to use this old crude DRO while I'm learning rather than just throw dollars at it. At least long enough that I become better with machining and am more likely to be able to properly install a new system. Any additional pointers on what else I could do, or why it would have this works-wet, sucks-dry behavior, or whether maybe it's not worth messing with a DRO this old would be really appreciated. Oh yes, Giant display says RL325L and scale only marked as 400mm and 5micron. THANKS!