• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.

DavidR8's shop shenanigans

David_R8 said:
In other news, I'm going with the TouchDRO route on the lathe. Picked up a Kindle Fire for $50, installed the TouchDRO app. Ordered some scales, 1 micron for the cross slide and 5 microns for the carriage.
Click to expand...

Good choice, I think you're really going to like it. I found it to be pretty easy to set up and I think you're going to like the features and capabilities that the soft DRO App. gives vs. the STD hardware DROs.

As an added bonus you will be able to use it (one tablet) on both your mill and lathe by flipping a soft switch. I've gone that route.

Looking forward to hearing about your experience. :)

For those unfamiliar, the TouchDRO App. is a no cost download from the Android store. You can buy the scale interface electronics or roll your own.

D :cool:
 
Tecnico said:
Good choice, I think you're really going to like it. I found it to be pretty easy to set up and I think you're going to like the features and capabilities that the soft DRO App. gives vs. the STD hardware DROs.

As an added bonus you will be able to use it (one tablet) on both your mill and lathe by flipping a soft switch. I've gone that route.

Looking forward to hearing about your experience. :)

For those unfamiliar, the TouchDRO App. is a no cost download from the Android store. You can buy the scale interface electronics or roll your own.

D :cool:
Click to expand...
Yes I’m super impressed by the app. Dead easy to configure (as much as I can without scales or the adapter) and easy to navigate.
 
YotaBota said:
I'm looking at the TouchDRO for the mill.

What are you doing for sensors or did I miss that part?
Click to expand...
I ordered a 1 micron glass scale for the cross slide and a 5 micron for the carriage.
I'll do TouchDRO for the mill as well because I can reuse the tablet. So one display for two machines.
 
YotaBota said:
That is a good feature and yes I missed the "scales" part of the conversation.

I'm thinking of going magnetic just for the compactness of the scales.
Click to expand...
I thought really hard about magnetic but I wasn't confident that I could get the required accuracy in their installation.
I'm also torn on where to put the cross slide scale.
The tailstock side has gib adjusters, mount for the follow rest and the carriage lock. I'm also conscious of taking up space for the tailstock travel.
The chuck side is free and clear but it's the chuck side.
 
I used the Magna slim scale from DRO Pros and mounted it on the tail stock side. It made it a little more difficult for getting at the gibbs screws and cross slide lock but not impossible. I haven't run into any problems getting my tail stock close enough to the chuck and the mount for the read head acts like a stop to prevent the tail stock from slamming into the scale. They didn't recommend putting the scale on the chuck side in case some thing were to drop on it and on my lathe the mount for the follow rest is on there. I have used the follow rest a few times when cutting threads in small diameter parts. They said a guard on the Magna slim was not necessary but I put one on anyway just to help keep it cleaner and it is so slim there was room. Picture attached
 

Attachments

  • Cross slide scale guard.jpg
    Cross slide scale guard.jpg
    76 KB · Views: 11
Last edited:
David_R8 said:
I thought really hard about magnetic but I wasn't confident that I could get the required accuracy in their installation.
I'm also torn on where to put the cross slide scale.
The tailstock side has gib adjusters, mount for the follow rest and the carriage lock. I'm also conscious of taking up space for the tailstock travel.
The chuck side is free and clear but it's the chuck side.
Click to expand...
Can you fit the read head inside the slot the cross slide screw rides in? You could just lay the tape in there (without the extrusion that supports it). That's my plan with my 701 cross slide. And the read heads and tape have just arrived, just in time for me to be away all weekend :-(
 
Larry_C9 said:
I used the Magna slim scale from DRO Pros and mounted it on the tail stock side. It made it a little more difficult for getting at the gibbs screw and cross slide lock but not impossible. I haven't run ito any problems getting my tail stock close enough to the chuck and the mount for the read head act like a stop to prevent the tail stock from slamming into the scale. They didn't recommend putting the scale on the chuck side in case some thing were to drop on it and on my lathe the mount for the follow rest is on there. I have used the follow rest a few times when cutting threads in small diameter parts. They said a guard on the Magna slim was not necessary but I put one on anyway just to help keep it cleaner and it is so slim there was room. Picture attached
Click to expand...
Thanks Larry, appreciate that.
I'll have to replace my gib screws with hex bolts so I can adjust them.
Here's the top view.
Now that I look at it and think about it, there's no reason I couldn't drill and tap the left side flats for the follow rest.
Clausing carriage..jpeg
 
David_R8 said:
I'm also torn on where to put the cross slide scale.
Click to expand...

It's a no brainer guys. Don't put it on the chuck side or on the tailstock side.....

Put it INSIDE the cross-slide. Safe from harm, doesn't interfere with ANYTHING!

@Xyphota did one a while back
@TorontoBuilder just did one
And I am in process.

You don't need room for the whole scale - just the scale strip (think piece of thick tape). You only need 50 thou or so. Easy peasy to mill a shallow slot to hold the scale. And the scale can be held in place with double sided tape.

It really is a no brainer guys. Also, looking at the Yuri website, the touch dro is compatible with magnetic tape.

If I were a lathe manufacturer, the slot would already be there! And truth be told, mine was just a few thou short of already being there!

Thread 'Lathe DRO' https://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/threads/lathe-dro.6093/

Post in thread 'DRO install on Myford ML7R' https://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/threads/dro-install-on-myford-ml7r.5963/post-88169

Thread 'Colchester Master 2500 DRO installation' https://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/threads/colchester-master-2500-dro-installation.7246/
 
David_R8 said:
I ordered a 1 micron glass scale for the cross slide and a 5 micron for the carriage.
I'll do TouchDRO for the mill as well because I can reuse the tablet. So one display for two machines.
Click to expand...

PaulL said:
Can you fit the read head inside the slot the cross slide screw rides in? You could just lay the tape in there (without the extrusion that supports it). That's my plan with my 701 cross slide. And the read heads and tape have just arrived, just in time for me to be away all weekend :-(
Click to expand...

I noticed that you had bought glass scales but I was wondering about this as well. I don't know what your carriage/cross look like so maybe there isn't a convenient space? Embedding the tape in my cross made the installation practical for me.

YotaBota said:
That is a good feature and yes I missed the "scales" part of the conversation.

I'm thinking of going magnetic just for the compactness of the scales.
Click to expand...

@YotaBota and others following the thread, I'm not sure if you've seen some of the other discussion about scales so I'll repeat a bit here in case. When I was looking at scales (@Susquatch as well) I found that once I engaged Ditron (chat window in their ads on the AliEx site) and told them what I thought I wanted for scales they offered up some trade-offs and one was to give me all 1u scales for the price of 5u so keep that ready to bring up. I had intended to go 1u for the cross and 5u for the carriage but since they offered 1u at no additional cost......

They (and others) offered me different size scales, the smaller the profile the bigger the price. I settled on magnetic with a slim head, one a mountable scale, one just tape, slim glass for another and regular glass for the other 3. That gave me the best fit/price trade-off for each location. If budget is a consideration there are choices.

I like the fact that the glass scales are more enclosed than the magnetic.

D :cool:
 
Last edited:
Susquatch said:
It's a no brainer guys. Don't put it on the chuck side or on the tailstock side.....

Put it INSIDE the cross-slide. Safe from harm, doesn't interfere with ANYTHING!

@Xyphota did one a while back
@TorontoBuilder just did one
And I am in process.

You don't need room for the whole scale - just the scale strip (think piece of thick tape). You only need 50 thou or so. Easy peasy to mill a shallow slot to hold the scale. And the scale can be held in place with double sided tape.

It really is a no brainer guys. Also, looking at the Yuri website, the touch dro is compatible with magnetic tape.

If I were a lathe manufacturer, the slot would already be there! And truth be told, mine was just a few thou short of already being there!

Thread 'Lathe DRO' https://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/threads/lathe-dro.6093/

Post in thread 'DRO install on Myford ML7R' https://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/threads/dro-install-on-myford-ml7r.5963/post-88169

Thread 'Colchester Master 2500 DRO installation' https://canadianhobbymetalworkers.com/threads/colchester-master-2500-dro-installation.7246/
Click to expand...
That works only if you have magnetic scales.
 
Tecnico said:
I was wondering about this as well. I don't know what your carriage/cross look like so maybe there isn't a convenient space? Embedding the tape in my cross made the installation practical for me.



@YotaBota and others following the thread, I'm not sure if you've seen some of the other discussion about scales so I'll repeat a bit here in case. When I was looking at scales (@Susquatch as well) I found that once I engaged Ditron (chat window in their ads on the AliEx site) and told them what I thought I wanted for scales they offered up some trade-offs and one was to give me all 1u scales for the price of 5u so keep that ready to bring up. I had intended to go 1u for the cross and 5u for the carriage but since they offered 1u at no additional cost......

They (and others) offered me different size scales, the smaller the profile the bigger the price. I settled on magnetic with a slim head, one a mountable scale, one just tape, slim glass for another and regular glass for the other 3. That gave me the best fit/price trade-off for each location. If budget is a consideration there are choices.

I like the fact that the glass scales are more enclosed than the magnetic.

D :cool:
Click to expand...


dont buy scales.

buy 1 micron read heads, and 2+2 magnetic tape.

dont pay their advertised price. I got a huge discount on 3 read heads and magnetic tape. Need a scale for the long z axis, just slot a length of aluminum and mount that to the rear of the lathe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top