DRO recommendation for small knee mill

Between life, kids, moving and several other things I have forgotten I have had to set machining aside for awhile.

I have started to get things organized and set up again.

I Would like to add the feature of a 3 axis DRO to my small mill. I think it would add to the ability of getting projects done and hopefully more accurately.

My question is I really dont know where to start. I see alot of options out there and have no idea what's junk or not my goal is something that is affordable yet not something that is I have to replace in a few years or has no parts support 6 months later. New, used not sure where to start

X Cross 8.125" could make 8.000" work
Y Table 21.500" to 21.600"
Z Knee 18.250"

I appreciate any advice, thanks

rprecision said:

between life, kids, moving and several other things i have forgotten i have had to set machining aside for awhile.

I have started to get things organized and set up again.

I would like to add the feature of a 3 axis dro to my small mill. I think it would add to the ability of getting projects done and hopefully more accurately.

My question is i really dont know where to start. I see alot of options out there and have no idea what's junk or not my goal is something that is affordable yet not something that is i have to replace in a few years or has no parts support 6 months later. New, used not sure where to start

x cross 8.125" could make 8.000" work
y table 21.500" to 21.600"
z knee 18.250"

i appreciate any advice, thanks

Click to expand...

i have a shooting star dro which is made in canada
had it for years and i am very satisfied with it

Looks like a clone of my Clausing 8520?

I just went through this and decided magnetic scales were the way to go mainly for size and versatility. Dro Pros sell a lot of the Electronica stuff and I was leaning towards them but ended up going direct to the company in India.

In the end I got a package for about 1/2 the price DRO Pros quoted but of course had to email back and forth to the company and wire the money over.

I went for these scales in 1 um accuracy: Electronica Mechatronic Systems: Magnetic Linear Encoders - Magna Slim

(DRO Pros have these but they are not shown on their website - 5 um accuracy only)

They come with the EMC 14A reader head: Electronica Mechatronic Systems: Magnetic Linear Encoders - EMC14 Reader Head

Went with the EL400: Digital Readout System | Boring & Horizontal Boring Machine | Microscope DRO

The MB100 looks like just the ticket for a lathe carriage.

How did you get a quote from them?

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Cole2534 said:

The MB100 looks like just the ticket for a lathe carriage.

How did you get a quote from them?

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I sent an email to Ajeet Kashid here:

Electronica Mechatronic Systems | Digital Readouts manufacturer in India | Machine Tool DRO | Metrology DRO | Magnetic Encoders system | Absolute magnetic encoders | Optical linear encoder | DRO Kits | Height Gauges | Coordinate Measuring Machine | Vision measuring machine

He was a pleasure to do business with, answered all my questions and quoted price and delivery for all I wanted. Initial shipping was quite expensive but they were able to do better with Fed Ex.

Order came very well packed and as I said nothing against DRO Pro's but even with $230 shipping to Toronto it was 1/2 of what they quoted plus I got 1 um scales and encoders vs 5 um.

I haven't got it installed yet but it sure won't take up much space on my baby Clausing!

Terry Keeley said:

Looks like a clone of my Clausing 8520?

I just went through this and decided magnetic scales were the way to go mainly for size and versatility. Dro Pros sell a lot of the Electronica stuff and I was leaning towards them but ended up going direct to the company in India.

In the end I got a package for about 1/2 the price DRO Pros quoted but of course had to email back and forth to the company and wire the money over.

I went for these scales in 1 um accuracy: Electronica Mechatronic Systems: Magnetic Linear Encoders - Magna Slim

(DRO Pros have these but they are not shown on their website - 5 um accuracy only)

They come with the EMC 14A reader head: Electronica Mechatronic Systems: Magnetic Linear Encoders - EMC14 Reader Head

Went with the EL400: Digital Readout System | Boring & Horizontal Boring Machine | Microscope DRO

Click to expand...

About 12 years ago I looked at a clausing and a Rockwell. The clausing was nice but the guy wanted about 5k for it. The Rockwell didn't have a R8 spindle and had a problem with a cross shaft. Long story, I ended up with this mill which was imported out of Taiwan through KBC. In retrospect I wish I would have bought a Bridgeport but I didn't have the room I do today.

It's been a great little mill, just doesn't have the rigidity of the big ones.

Thanks for the information

Terry Keeley said:

I sent an email to Ajeet Kashid here:

Electronica Mechatronic Systems | Digital Readouts manufacturer in India | Machine Tool DRO | Metrology DRO | Magnetic Encoders system | Absolute magnetic encoders | Optical linear encoder | DRO Kits | Height Gauges | Coordinate Measuring Machine | Vision measuring machine

He was a pleasure to do business with, answered all my questions and quoted price and delivery for all I wanted. Initial shipping was quite expensive but they were able to do better with Fed Ex.

Order came very well packed and as I said nothing against DRO Pro's but even with $230 shipping to Toronto it was 1/2 of what they quoted plus I got 1 um scales and encoders vs 5 um.

I haven't got it installed yet but it sure won't take up much space on my baby Clausing!

Click to expand...

I emailed them today. Of course there's a 12hr time difference but hopefully I'll hear back tomorrow.

Cole2534 said:

I emailed them today. Of course there's a 12hr time difference but hopefully I'll hear back tomorrow.

Click to expand...

Yup, they're 12 hrs ahead but I found they replied the same day (their time).

Whatcha looking for?

Terry Keeley said:

I sent an email to Ajeet Kashid here:

Electronica Mechatronic Systems | Digital Readouts manufacturer in India | Machine Tool DRO | Metrology DRO | Magnetic Encoders system | Absolute magnetic encoders | Optical linear encoder | DRO Kits | Height Gauges | Coordinate Measuring Machine | Vision measuring machine

He was a pleasure to do business with, answered all my questions and quoted price and delivery for all I wanted. Initial shipping was quite expensive but they were able to do better with Fed Ex.

Order came very well packed and as I said nothing against DRO Pro's but even with $230 shipping to Toronto it was 1/2 of what they quoted plus I got 1 um scales and encoders vs 5 um.

Click to expand...

Terry:
So 1.25 years later I tried to get a quote from Electronica. Sent a request thru their inquiry tab - crickets. Sent a follow up message to the inquiry tab a week later - more crickets. Reread this thread of yours: https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/new-dro-installation-371040/?highlight=EL400 and sent a message to the email address you listed. Mr Kashid responded the same day with "we have two distributors in your country (USA), here is their contact info".

I was interested in the 4-axis EL700 and contacted the second US distributor and to minimize cost I asked for 5 micron glass scales (I already had looked at DRO Pros website and decided $1840 was a bit too rich for me (hobbyist, spent considerably less than that piecing together the Bridgeport that it is going on). The other distributor's quote was over $1900. Now I am looking into a Ditron D80. Either the direct purchase window has closed or Electronica did not /does not have a distributor in Canada and that is why they were willing to sell direct to you and not to me.

Ya, the website tab didn't work for me either but Ajeet was great.

There was a guy on the Clausing Yahoo group that got the same response, he replied the distributor's didn't offer 1 micron scales and asked him to re-consider.

They did.

Terry Keeley said:

Ya, the website tab didn't work for me either but Ajeet was great.

There was a guy on the Clausing Yahoo group that got the same response, he replied the distributor's didn't offer 1 micron scales and asked him to re-consider.

They did.

Click to expand...

As a cost save I had asked for glass scales - neither of the US distributors offered that. So I contacted Ajeet - his quote with glass scales was $1400+. I ended up buying a 4-axis + hall sensor Ditron D80 Dro with one micron magnetic scales, for half that amount. Today I begin the scale install.

aribert said:

As a cost save I had asked for glass scales - neither of the US distributors offered that. So I contacted Ajeet - his quote with glass scales was $1400+. I ended up buying a 4-axis + hall sensor Ditron D80 Dro with one micron magnetic scales, for half that amount. Today I begin the scale install.

Click to expand...

From Electronica? Direct?

No Electronica - could not justify $1400, much less $1800 to $1900. Ditron DE80 is a Chinese unit instead of the India Electronica. Like this: Ditron D80 3 Axis Mill DRO Kit w/ Magnetic Scales - MachineToolProducts.com Mine is 4-axis + rotating speed sensor - bought directly from Ditron via Amazon (was same package/price on eBay). I'm still mounting scales so I have not powered up the head yet.

aribert said:

No Electronica - could not justify $1400, much less $1800 to $1900. Ditron DE80 is a Chinese unit instead of the India Electronica. Like this: Ditron D80 3 Axis Mill DRO Kit w/ Magnetic Scales - MachineToolProducts.com Mine is 4-axis + rotating speed sensor - bought directly from Ditron via Amazon (was same package/price on eBay). I'm still mounting scales so I have not powered up the head yet.

Click to expand...

Did you ask him about the 1 micron scales?

how do you like your Ditron kit?

b4runner: I was pleased enough to buy a second D80 for my lathe - I wanted to have a 3-axis DRO on my lathe with the ability to do compound vectoring with the compound slide (move the compound and the resultant X & Y position is displayed). I have not used compound vectoring feature yet. In the moderate DRO price range I could only find an Eason and the Ditron D80 that had this feature. And its just easier to have the same DRO head on both machines. The Eason has a much more detailed manual - about twice as many pages. My lathe (Summit 14, swings 16+ inches) is large enough that I was able to package the small form magnetic reader head and scales inside of both the Cross and Compound slides.

I did have a problem with the scale on the mill quill - the scale had a dead spot in it. I contacted the seller, described the problem and they tried to convince me that the reader head was defective - they sent me a replacement reader head. Once again I contacted then, this time made a quick video to show how both the old and new reader heads showed the same discontinuity at the same place and not an issue w/ either reader head on a piece of scale drop. They then sent me a new scale. This double go around took about 3 weeks to resolve (but now I have a spare reader head).

Some learnings:
Many vendors have the same price for any scale less than 1m in length. Because the magnetic scales are so easy to cut to length, buy your scales oversize and cut to size. If the needed scale is less than 0.5 m (or 19.5 inchs) buy it at 1m and have a spare scale for free.

Second thing I learned is while the 1 micron scales only cost a few $ extra they are very finicky with respect to magnetic gap between the reader head and the scale. The 1 micron scales need to be in near contact with the scale whereas the 5 micron system functions well with an air gap of up to 1+ mm.

I was looking at the D80 3v but with the glass scales on most. I would get the 3axis on the lathe as well... and the 4 axis on the millin machine. I know everyone says its a waste but I don't have to use it if I don't want.. but I can if I need to and its there.

I am not sure the accuracy of the glass sacales but I think they would be alright for what I am doing. I don't need .001 accuracy anything. How come you decided on magnetic over glass? I have heard a lot of mix opinions on both.

I have a D80 on one machine, 4 axis. It's on a Wells Index 847 with 30 taper spindle. 4 axis is nice in this case as I can use tool offsets - with the 30 taper the tool's Z heights are repeatable. That makes for fast work on multiple parts. So far it has been great, only had it on for a short while though. I have Sony DROs on my other machines.

aribert said:

b4runner: I was pleased enough to buy a second D80 for my lathe - I wanted to have a 3-axis DRO on my lathe with the ability to do compound vectoring with the compound slide (move the compound and the resultant X & Y position is displayed). I have not used compound vectoring feature yet.

Click to expand...

You likely already know this but X is the cross slide. Y is the bed. The calculated measurements will not add correctly if the scales are not attached this way.

Thank you,
Mr.Smith

Terry Keeley said:

Yup, they're 12 hrs ahead but I found they replied the same day (their time).

Whatcha looking for?

Click to expand...

MB100 with a 36" scale. Just remembered this, don't think I ever ordered it.