Deckel FP1 DRO Scale Size

Hi everyone. I plan on buying a Chinese DRO and fitting it to my FP1. My FP1 is lever machine from the late 50's. I love using it except my eyes are getting weary of looking at the rule scales. Buying an expensive DRO like a Heidenhain is not financially possible at this time so I have decided to go the cheap route. I have heard good things about a Easson Es17 3 axis kit with glass scales.
I have never installed a DRO. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for fitting the scales to my FP1? I am trying to measure what scale sizes I need in particular. I plan on milling my own mounting brackets and would like to drill as little holes into the machine as possible.

For only about 35% more I went for a newall with microsyn scales for my aciera, and I had to ship it from the UK. The unit is way better than the sino ones to use and the scales are immune to dirt and chips.

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I think the newall may even be basically the same price as your Easson, I paid $1200 aud delivered

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rblalexander said:

I think the newall may even be basically the same price as your Easson, I paid $1200 aud delivered

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The Easson is less than half of that. $463 delivered. I wish I could purchase a better kit, but I have other priorities. .

I measured the travel on my FP1. Up/down is 340mm, in/out is 150mm but my left right is 345mm?? I thought my left/right was supposed to be 300mm?
Should the scales be as close as possible to those measurements or go a little bigger?

Degull said:

Should the scales be as close as possible to those measurements or go a little bigger?

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As to what length to order, the manufacturer should be able to tell you exactly how much longer the physical scale is than the travel. Measure the actual travel and this will tell you the minimum length of scale you can order. Having a little extra can make mounting easier as it gives you some wiggle room when mounting the read head. Too long, though, can interfere with things.

I'm going to recommend you do some homework before ordering your scales, though. The FP1 is not the easiest machine to install scales on, especially the X axis.* I'd download the drawings of all the scales available for the DRO you are ordering and figure out EXACTLY where you are going to mount everything. You don't want to spend the money and figure out the scales you have don't fit.

* Problem with the x axis scale on the FP1 is that you want to tuck it below and behind the mounting surface of the vertical table so that you can pull the horizontal table and mount things to its face without interference from the scale. There isn't a lot of room and the casting (on mine) has odd angles. I bought the smallest profile scale available and mounted it to the underside of the table. Lost the feed stops in doing so but it gave me a nice surface to mount the scale to and enough room for the read head.

Teryk




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I recently installed a DRO on my 51’ FP1–I used 200mm on the Y axis, 250mm on x axis and 350 on the z


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Feed stops on both axis weren’t affected with my scale arrangement


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Under 300$ —Ebay

1potatoe said:

I recently installed a DRO on my 51’ FP1–I used 200mm on the Y axis, 250mm on x axis and 350 on the z

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Excellent install! I would like to keep my feed stops as well. The pics really help, thanks for that.

I don’t understand why I am measuring 345mm travel on my X (left/right)?

Thanks—-I’m not sure why you have the extra travel but it’s a good issue to have.


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1potatoe said:

Thanks—-I’m not sure why you have the extra travel but it’s a good issue to have.

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Lol, I’m not complaining! I have a feeling that I’m not measuring correctly.

250 mm on X?? I thought the FP1 had 290-300 on X, no?

Early generations FP1's only have 250mm of travel for x, and no separate electrical cabinet as well (among other differences).

TNB said:

Early generations FP1's only have 250mm of travel for x, and no separate electrical cabinet as well (among other differences).

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Thanks, didn't know that...