Lathe DRO reccomendation.

I have looked at a lot of information in the archives. None seems to be current. I am looking to add a DRO to a Leblond 15-54 lathe. My only familiarity is with Acu-rite. Specifically a 200t.

In the archives a lot of people recommend Newall or Sony which is now Magnescale. People seem to say avoid Acu-rite.

The Magnescale is actually less money than some others and a lot of people say it is very easy to install. It is lacking some of the features of the Newall or Acu-rite.
Any thoughts?

Thanks

JGRJR333 said:

I have looked at a lot of information in the archives. None seems to be current. I am looking to add a DRO to a Leblond 15-54 lathe. My only familiarity is with Acu-rite. Specifically a 200t.

In the archives a lot of people recommend Newall or Sony which is now Magnescale. People seem to say avoid Acu-rite.

The Magnescale is actually less money than some others and a lot of people say it is very easy to install. It is lacking some of the features of the Newall or Acu-rite.
Any thoughts?

Thanks

Click to expand...

No lathe DRO experience yet, but I recently installed a new Mitutoyo KA readout with AT-715 scales on my new-to-me 2nd BPort. Those systems seem like decent deals compared to some of the other name brands. The cost was slightly less than $1K. Newall has a very good rep on this forum, as you note. Acu-Rite seems have the reputation of being harder to operate, with less understandable documentation.

I have been considering adding a DRO to my lathe, and did some recent research into some of the systems DRO Pros offer. These are Asian imports generally, and run about half the cost of comparable name brands. I am considering these simply due to the typically higher cost of a lathe setup. For lathe use, it seems like a lot of "fancy" features are not really needed, though.

+1 acu-rite
I use a 200s every day it's great
easy to set tool offsets

The only DRO I would put on a lathe is a Newhall, because the linear sensors do not have glass scales, and are there fore almost impervious to contamination. We have a Newhall on our Wacheon lathe, and have had no trouble with it, even covered in chips and soaking wet with coolant. I don't think a glass scale type readout could stand these conditions. Plus when you install the sensors, lining them up isn't such a pain in the ass.

Hbjj said:

+1 acu-rite
I use a 200s every day it's great
easy to set tool offsets

Click to expand...

If they'd add voice recognition to the 200S so you could tell it to change tool offsets, now that would be progress.

HuFlungDung said:

If they'd add voice recognition to the 200S so you could tell it to change tool offsets, now that would be progress.

Click to expand...

Isn't there an APP for that?

I have same leblond lathe size at home. I pieced mine together from ebay stuff. It is a Acu-rite system. I think I have about $250.00 in scales and readout box plus time making mounts and brackets.
I helped a service tech install one on new lathe at work and learned how to check and align everything and attached mounts. I purposely volunteered to help because I wanted to do same thing to my lathe a home shop some day.

Acu-rite has all dimensions for all there scales on there web site and downloadable manuals. I use these to figure out everything and to get hole locations and alignment specs