# Lathe DRO ?



## cuslog (Feb 2, 2021)

Do you have a DRO on your lathe ? What brand ? Do you like it? Buy it again ?
Starting to think about one for my 16 x 40 Nardini.
I've had a Sino Dro on my mill for 10 or more years and its OK. I think I paid about $700 for it. I guess its more than OK, its always worked, never broke down, seems accurate enough (for me anyways) and I wouldn't want to be without it. I've used it a lot for bolt circles and laying out arc segments.
I use my mill probably 4 or 5 to one more than my lathe so I get a fair amount of use out of it. Maybe not so much on a lathe ?
Making a piece on the lathe yesterday, 4 different bore diameters to 4 different depths, doing it with dials and mag base dial indicators got to be a bit tedious.
Sonny Boy is a Professional Machinist (Red Seal Journeyman) - he's priced out a couple of Mitutoyo 2 Axis Dro's , scales, mounting kits etc., $18 ~ 1900.00.   I have Mitutoyo calipers, mics etc. and do like them just not so sure I want to go that deep on a lathe DRO. Is the Mitutoyo that much better ?
What do you think ?


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## PeterT (Feb 2, 2021)

I'm a big fan of DRO, both lathe & mill. I have Newall, they are reliable but spendy. Probably less than Mitutoyo but up there with the other industrial brands. Part of what go me into that line is quite small scale/encoders systems (Microsyn) for tighter installation & a solid reputation. A bigger machine can usually accommodate the regular bigger scales but it all depends. 

Like many things, less expensive systems from China have entered the market with a vengeance. Probably if I did it again today I would go for a system like what DROPros offers. Some have had good luck ordering what look to be the same thing from Ali or other suppliers, others experienced teething pains. Do as much web surfing & reading on scale sizing & installation techniques so you have a game plan. For the most part its not too difficult, but the machine environment itself dictates how you go about it - what surfaces you can mount to, brackets, adjust-ability etc. Most machines have rough-ish, non uniform casting surfaces so you need to figure out ways to mount the DRO stuff solid & straight with this in mind.


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## Janger (Feb 2, 2021)

https://star-techno.com

Canadian DRO manufacturer. 






I have one I still need to mount on my lathe. Another project not yet done... I bought it from Peter.


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## Desab (Feb 2, 2021)

i bought an off shore for the mill, will purchasing one for my lathe soon
everything works great but again i never used a high end brand. works great for the hobbiest and affordable


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## PeterT (Feb 2, 2021)

Never used them but lots of info there to get started

https://www.dropros.com/


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## Tom O (Feb 2, 2021)

I have the Dropro’s 4th axis on my Craftex mill with the thinner rails.


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## Booter (Feb 2, 2021)

I have a 3-axis DRO on a vertical mill and 2-axis on a lathe.
They are solid assets to any work that is done on either machine.
The lathe's DRO was purchased from China via eBay.  No regrets at all.
Some jobs now see me "machining by the numbers."
For jobs where I would have measured repeatedly, most of those measurements now no longer happen.  So, a DRO can also save time on a job.
Hope this helps....


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## kevin.decelles (Feb 3, 2021)

My 14x40 Modern lathe came with a DRO installed. Chinese mfg is my guess. I did the aliexpress route for my mill , looks VERY similar to my lathe.

IMHO it comes down to the install. I could have a 5K dro and be off forever because of the install

I tend to use it on the lathe as a ‘reference’. I find that my DOC rarely matches the actual cut especially with carbide inserts. When in close I tend to still go from the dials

But.... for taper attachment setting, awesome

My only beef is they blocked the cross slide lock nut with the scale...... need to add spacers to free that up. Could be why my DOC is variable [emoji3]

Switching from metric to imperial with a button is pretty sweet too


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## John Conroy (Feb 3, 2021)

I have Chinese DROs on my lathe and mill. The lathe came with a Ficom brand and the mill is a Sinpo but the components look identical. I damaged a scale on the mill and a replacement was easy to obtain from the same vendor I purchased the kit from on eBay. I am very happy with both.


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## Brent H (Feb 3, 2021)

@YYCHobbyMachinist : did you DRO your Utilathe?  If so, how did you fit the long axis with the taper attachment in place?


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## YYCHM (Feb 3, 2021)

Brent H said:


> @YYCHobbyMachinist : did you DRO your Utilathe?  If so, how did you fit the long axis with the taper attachment in place?








The scale is attached to a hardwood strip that is clamped to the web of the TA bracket.  The reader is tied to the saddle using the forward follower rest attachment bolt hole via a metal bracket.


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## PeterT (Feb 3, 2021)

kevin.decelles said:


> I tend to use it on the lathe as a ‘reference’. I find that my DOC rarely matches the actual cut especially with carbide inserts. When in close I tend to still go from the dials
> My only beef is they blocked the cross slide lock nut with the scale...... need to add spacers to free that up. Could be why my DOC is variable



My experience has been most of the discrepancy can be accounted for by regular machining stuff assuming the DRO is installed & calibrated properly
- taking a mic measurement over the tops of thready roughing pass & entering that number as reference DRO value is not the same as finer resolution finishing pass 
- temperature effect, part heating up & expanding vs cooler temp measurement (solution measure at similar temp, allow to cool)
- spring pass effect, the material itself is flexing under different DOC load (solution, repeat cut ideally at different feed rate to cross over prior hills. Also don't rely on 1 mic measurement at the end of a cantilevered part, compare to OD close to the chuck which will always be smaller OD)
- rigidity & postioning, lack of table lock is potentially a big factor here. If you can push or pull your cross slide .005" just with leadscrew nut wear, then this float translates into variation (solution maybe relocate lock to other side? Always back off & dial back in direction to mitigate backlash, but this is not a cure)

If you had no DRO & completely read off teh dials you may well hav ethis exact same issue - being long or short a couple thou once you get down to target diameter. The advantage of teh DRO is that its measuring displacement INDEPENDANTLY. So its giving you insight to other drift or wear issues.

I'm kind of the opposite as your workflow now. I use the dials to take rough cuts & then start watching the DRO when the dimensions get critical. But its very common to measure/recalibrate getting close to target dimension. Takes all of 5 secs so why not. I also used to think a 3rd encoder on the compound would be nice. In hindsight, probably not for 98% of people. For a while a 2=axis display box was quite a bit cheaper than 3. But nowadays the price is driving lower with more features so logic flipped around. Maybe buy a 3 & only use 2 so you can swap it over to a mill on an upgrade?


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## Tom Kitta (Feb 3, 2021)

I got cheapest DRO I could find on aliexpress and I will be installing it in the next few days.

It run me around 250 CAD all in. It is a two scale version of what I have on the mill and has been working great for 2 or 3 years. It is accurate to about 0.01mm or more. 

I would not spend more then maybe 2x on a top of the line DRO from say Mitutoyo and only b/c of brand snobness - I doubt there is any real difference in the same class. The 1 micron class from China for 350 would be far more accurate then the 0.01mm class from Mitutoyo.


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## YYCHM (Feb 3, 2021)

I put two iGaging DROs on my lathe.  I wouldn't do that again.  Small display that's not back lite so hard to read at times, small buttons, battery powered.  Might be ok for wood working but I wouldn't recommend them for metal working machines.

Craig


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## Tom Kitta (Feb 3, 2021)

iGaging scales were all the rage before Chinese started to make cheap real DROs. Now there is little point in getting them for metal.


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## YYCHM (Feb 3, 2021)

Tom Kitta said:


> iGaging scales were all the rage before Chinese started to make cheap real DROs. Now there is little point in getting them for metal.



I got them real cheap, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered putting DROs on the lathe in the first place.


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## Hruul (Feb 3, 2021)

@YYCHobbyMachinist how does the reader handle swarf in that position?


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## YYCHM (Feb 3, 2021)

Hruul said:


> @YYCHobbyMachinist how does the reader handle swarf in that position?



No problems as of yet.  A lot doesn't make it back there.  More from drilling than turning.  Being in the basement laundry room I'm pretty diligent about vacuuming stuff up between operations otherwise I get overwhelmed and my ShopVac plugs up which is PITA


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