Some DRO scale mounting pictures for your review

Some Bridgeport DRO scale mounting pictures for your review

Finally getting around to putting a DRO on my Bridgeport. Wet with a Chinese import. Scales shipped from USA, but the DRO is stated to ship on the 10th(Monday) I home the shit hitting the fan in China doesn't interfere.


Anyway, I got measured my travel and got the closest glass scales available. Turns out that the 700mm for my X covered my coolant drain holes. I did some checking and found I could shorten the scale to just inside the holes and still have the needed travel.

The scale for my quill was just a bit long also, so I shortened it too.

Anyway, I will post an update when I get the actual DRO - it is an LCD model. So I am looking forward to the enhanced graphic based features.

Looks good! Forum is a pain trying to get pics to post right.

I figured it out!











Still able to access the nuts should I need to rotate the head.

I got the hang of the pics - here... Posting Pictures on the South Bend Forum



More...




I used the brackets included with the scales - But had to extend some of the slots. Even so, I lacked clearance for the guard as shipped. I ripped it down on my table saw. I think it will still serve it's purpose.

And some pics of the scale modification process.

I just cut the housing with a hack saw, then scored the glass with dremel diamond - back from the edge so the endcap could fit without interference. The double cut produced the gap where I could insert the dremel





Here is what I removed.

Pretty tricky cutting that glass, nice!

Could you provide a bit of detail about how you actually cut the glass scales?
I have to shorten the same type of scale to fit the X axis on my Beaver Mill.

You should find a new home for that belt sander. Nothing good can come from having it so close to your mill.

Nice work :-)

For what its worth this is what i made to hold my Quill scale:
The slide is held into the depth stop by an expanding sleeve that allows the plate to be set square and parallel to the scale before tightening

I'd be very surprised if you see any shipments in the foreseeable future coming out of China given the Virus situation.


Can you explain how the reader head screws are accessed? Not clear on how you tightened them.

Thanks guys.

LexD said:

Could you provide a bit of detail about how you actually cut the glass scales?
I have to shorten the same type of scale to fit the X axis on my Beaver Mill.

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I just figured the travel I needed and marked the extrusion all around. I made the 1st cut on one of the sides - thru down to the glass. Then I made another cut beside the 1st cut, but on the waste side. I basically spaced the 2nd cut the with of the channel locks I used to break away the extrusion. After making the 2nd cut and removing the piece of aluminum, I just took my dremel with a tapered diamond bit and reached into the scale and scored the glass by making multiple passes. I think it broke in the score line before I was halfway through it. But you probably just need to put a heavy score on it.

Then just finish cutting the other two sides and clean up the end. You can see the larger piece on my vise shows the glass sticking out. The endcap was originally held on with small screws, but I just used epoxy. I did apply some epoxy to the very end of the glass in the scale to stabilize it.

dkmc said:

I'd be very surprised if you see any shipments in the foreseeable future coming out of China given the Virus situation.


Can you explain how the reader head screws are accessed? Not clear on how you tightened them.

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You are probably correct - I did get confirmation from fedex that my package has cleared the holds and is in fact on it way. Yay!

As far as the access for the screws - it's a bit of a Rubiks cube. There is an angle that bolts to the mill head 1st. You can see it with the notch cut out on the top of it. That not allows screwdriver access for the angle bracket that mounts to the quill. I then have to have the scale reader mounted to it, and there is another piece of angle that the scale itself mounts to. This is then thru bolted to the 1st angle. That is the last part of the puzzle.

Hope that made sense

acrosteve said:

As far as the access for the screws - it's a bit of a Rubiks cube. There is an angle that bolts to the mill head 1st. You can see it with the notch cut out on the top of it. That not allows screwdriver access for the angle bracket that mounts to the quill. I then have to have the scale reader mounted to it, and there is another piece of angle that the scale itself mounts to. This is then thru bolted to the 1st angle. That is the last part of the puzzle.
Hope that made sense

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I did notice the notch. Seemed like it had to be a puzzle but as long as it works, good job.

Got my shipment from China!

I hope you're wearing a mask, and soaked the entire box in ethanol for 15 minutes before opening it?
Looks nice. Is that the $500 setup? Is the display brightness adjustable? I have a feeling there are tons of features in these units.

acrosteve said:

Got my shipment from China!

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Lol, I do wonder my risk level. has to be less than the poor fed ex driver that is stuck in close quarters with these packages.


This unit was $245 on ebay - I have $150 in the 3 scales. So about $400 total.

I figured I was rolling the dice a little, but think I will definitely be satisfied with this choice.

Yes, adjustable brightness. Quite configurable.

The 'sold' numbers for these Ding-Dow DRO's on Ebay are interesting. I've seen many sellers in the 600-700's with mostly great feedback. In more and more pictures posted on the various machine shop forums, one of these low cost 'junkers' (ha!) can be seen on a machine or in the background. I think if I was one of the mainstream 'name brand' DRO mfg'rs I might be getting a bit unsettled. Kinda like when cheap but good pocket calculators burst on scene back in the 1980's. The USA brands withered away in a few years. Can you still buy a made in USA calculator these days?

dkmc said:

The 'sold' numbers for these Ding-Dow DRO's on Ebay are interesting. I've seen many sellers in the 600-700's with mostly great feedback. In more and more pictures posted on the various machine shop forums, one of these low cost 'junkers' (ha!) can be seen on a machine or in the background. I think if I was one of the mainstream 'name brand' DRO mfg'rs I might be getting a bit unsettled. Kinda like when cheap but good pocket calculators burst on scene back in the 1980's. The USA brands withered away in a few years. Can you still buy a made in USA calculator these days?

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I don't think that there is really any concern for the bigger name brands out there. For hobbyists, sure. Not many guys are rocking "high end" DRO's on the mill in their garage that they putz around on. Yet the majority of shops that I talk to and visit don't have a single cheap chinese DRO on their machines.

So I think the clarification should be made that you cant find a hobby priced DRO from a name brand out there. But I don't think that the big dogs have to worry at all about withering away.

Jon

HWElecRepair said:

I don't think that there is really any concern for the bigger name brands out there. ******* But I don't think that the big dogs have to worry at all about withering away.
Jon

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Said the guy that still buy's his PC's from IBM....