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Good way to mount a DRO or dial indicator on Deckel FP2 vertical head quill?

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I think the title says it all.

Has anyone here found a good way to mount a DRO scale or a dial indicator onto the quill of a Deckel FP2 vertical head (or similar)? The total range is 60mm, and there are times when it would be nice to follow it closely.
 
I think the title says it all.

Has anyone here found a good way to mount a DRO scale or a dial indicator onto the quill of a Deckel FP2 vertical head (or similar)? The total range is 60mm, and there are times when it would be nice to follow it closely.
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many just use clamp on adapter (can be made many ways) to hold a caliper and rubber band will get it to retract. some calipers go to sleep after so many minutes of no movement. saves on battery needing replacement so often. might need to clamp on something (2nd adapter) that caliper can push against to read movement.
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can be made many ways. often adapters are made from aluminum so easier to make. can clamp on to a bigger clamp like a kant twist clamp too. depends on how permanent you want or if you plan o remove after a few hours
 

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I think the title says it all.

Has anyone here found a good way to mount a DRO scale or a dial indicator onto the quill of a Deckel FP2 vertical head (or similar)? The total range is 60mm, and there are times when it would be nice to follow it closely.

Use google on "DRO for milling machine quill".

Find many. Pick one. Might be easier to buy than replicate, but it's your budget as to cash, time, and both.
 
many DRO you buy if they use battery only often go to sleep after a period of time. kind of annoying to have to turn back on or wake it up.
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more convenient to buy with 120 volt power supply that stays on all day.
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only advantage to using $20. digital caliper is its $20. and your time making a few adapters. depends on how much your time is worth
 
You guys don't own an FP2 do you?
All those quill DRO's need a sliding element that does not rotate with the spindle and moves somewhat in the middle of the quill movenent...Like the
hard limit stop that a Bridgeport and every other clone turret mill has.....
FP2 has no such moving piece save the quill, which is dead flush with the head casting when retracted (no exposed portion)

Could give up some travel and make a clamp ring to go on the quill, then you need to get the reading element out to clear the shape of the head (sort of like a football)
All something on would need to build , and give up travel to make the connection.

There is a moving part on top, but it rotates with the spindle....could make a bearing arrangement to carry the measuring element i suppose.
Cheers Ross
 
the hard limit stop that a Bridgeport and every other clone turret mill has.....
FP2 has no such moving piece save the quill, which is dead flush with the head casting when retracted (no exposed portion)
This is where any heretic cuts a slot in the casting to allow a pin in the quill to retract into, ELSE drills and taps holes in the fact of the quill for a flat bracket.

I can't see the modest gain worth any of THAT level of butchery, though.

More better to make a split-clamp, as it can be removed if the last "enth" of travel is needed.
 
Clamping/unclamping on the quill presents some problems. The opposite end of the reading element needs an anchor of some sort and when clamping to the quill the alignment
between each end of the measuring device needs to be close....The clamp fitting to a cylindrical quill will not be so located....Leaving the clamp in place and extending the quill to accommodate for
me would not be desirable, as any extension on such a short quill has deadly effects on the rigidity of the spindle....(milling)

My simple solution for the early FP2 would be to remove the plastic top bayonet cover . (the one that couples to the top spindle cover, which nobody uses anyway)
Then fabricate a hard slit collar with clamping screw that fits and can clamp to the top spindle shaft.
Collar would be necked to allow it to reach the top bearing of the vertical head.

To do precise depth, extend the quill the distance needed (f/drill or bore) and clamp the ring in contact with the top bearing on the vertical head.
Bias the quill against the clamped ring to take any slack out.
Bring up the work to touch the tool or set with setting gauge using the vertical travel (Z)
Retract he quill, and raise the table the depth needed.
Drill/bore using the quill till you hit the hard stop.....

Believe that the later FP's were fitted with these collars, and the cover for the spindle drive was changed to a larger size allowing the clearance at the top of the vertical head.

If a true DRO is needed, perhaps a rotary encoder could be incorporated to the quill fed shaft. Many DRO's (Heidenhain) can interpolate rotary motion into
a linear readout...Of course one would need to account for any backlash in the rack and pinion...But usually the motion is read going in one direction so might not be a big issue, just zero once the slack is taken up
in the direction of the needed feed....
Cheers Ross
 
I looked at my mill and thought I would add an idea to the discussion. The trick to making it work will be knowing exactly how far one revolution of the handle down feeds the quill (on inch machines there is a gap in the gradations since one revolution doesn't equal anything practical in inch-land).

On the non-operator side of the head where the quill return spring lives, you could attach something to capture rotary motion in place of the retaining screw washer. Perhaps the rotary encoder Ross suggested above(I think this is how the Fehlmann Picomax Z-axis readout works). But I am thinking something cheaper, jankier and something that is completely reversible.

The outline of the idea is you mount a pulley on the quill return spring housing in lieu of the washer. The OD of the pulley is sized to correspond to length quill extension per revolution. A cable wraps around the pulley as the quill is extended. The actual measurement device is attached at the front of the y-axis stop slot. You would use a cheap Bridgeport style quill digital scale, the ends of the scale would be mounted onto your bracket. The travelling part of the scale would be mounted to a bushing that travels on a rod that is mounted parallel to the scale. The bushing would have a hole that the cable would go through and a screw perpendicular to that hole to lock the bushing travel to that of the cable. After going through the bushing, the cable would go over a pulley at the top of the bracket and on the back side of the bracket you would have a spring to keep the cable tensioned throughout its travel.

Now for the fine points. I am thinking the pulley should have a helical groove so it doesn't wrap over itself and change the diameter (this would also be a good project for the spiral milling attachment). By adding an additional pulley at the base of the measurement device, you can orient your scale vertically so it is easier to read. Possibly you could also make the pulley diameter 2x the quill travel, have a pulley attached to the bushing and then have the cable go to the tension spring.

I am sure there are problems with my idea, but this is a interesting problem unique to Deckel mills. Maybe my idea will inspire an even better one!

Regards,
Nigel
 
Ross, Nigel, thanks for the ideas and feedback.

Ross, I'm more interested in a readout than in a stop, though the latter would also be useful.

The idea of mounting a very small rotary encoder on the door-side quill spring housing is a good one. I think it's 40mm per revolution, so a rotary encoder which produced 4000 counts per revolution would provide 0.01mm resolution.

Cheers, Bruce
 
Encoder would be it for me too
And dont be picky as on many DRO`s you can adjust the unit of measurement in anything you like
I would get hold of a dro with 4 scales and the possibillity to compensate Z and Quill
And make sure the spring pulls the quill up in any location That might be the hard part

Peter
 








 
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