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Ditron DRO Sale on Ali

Susquatch said:
I just noticed that Ditron has a big sale on right now. 32% off. Now is the time to get one if this is what you want.

a.aliexpress.com

1um SINO LCD DRO DITRON 3Axis Digital Readout RPM with 0.001mm Linear Glass Scale 3pcs for Milling Machine Lathe Machine - AliExpress 1420

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
a.aliexpress.com a.aliexpress.com

It sort of vindicates what I have said elsewhere. They are still making money at 32% off. That means there is lots of room to negotiate if you are so inclined
Click to expand...

Is this other store fake?

Ditron Factory Store(Trader)
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005573945864.html
 
  • The pre-assembled DRO for a milling machine and the Lathe DRO use industrial-grade drivers and optimized firmware in order to achieve ultimate performance and reliability. They can take advantage of scales with reference track, support touch probe and RPM inputs, have the ability to recover position after power loss, and come with TouchDRO Plus version of the app.
Click to expand...
At that price point and features you are equal or underwater with an industrial unit. The Do-it-yourself kit has some key features missing, esp. the Reference Point, which is a must if you want to use tool numbers and related offsets. Also not sure that magnetic scales have these Reference marks every 50mm like all the glass scales do.
I used TouchDRO for 4 years, only to see the App totally ignored with fixes and updates during that time. I don't trust one-man-shows. Great he is doing a lot of work now but IMHO the price point is too close to something commercial than to go with a Bluetooth connection. YMMV of course.

All of my lathe tool holder are numbered, and recorded in my DRO. Swap tool, set SDM, tip of tool is ready to cut at shown diameter.
 
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gerritv said:
At that price point and features you are equal or underwater with an industrial unit. The Do-it-yourself kit has some key features missing, esp. the Reference Point, which is a must if you want to use tool numbers and related offsets. Also not sure that magnetic scales have these Reference marks every 50mm like all the glass scales do.
I used TouchDRO for 4 years, only to see the App totally ignored with fixes and updates during that time. I don't trust one-man-shows. Great he is doing a lot of work now but IMHO the price point is too close to something commercial than to go with a Bluetooth connection. YMMV of course.

All of my lathe tool holder are numbered, and recorded in my DRO. Swap tool, set SDM, tip of tool is ready to cut at shown diameter.
Click to expand...
ah Gerrit very good points and something to consider.

I have been debating buying another D80 instead of touchDRO. I have two already and it is nice if you dont need to learn another ecosystem too
 
@trlvn can you confirm that the base casting of a 706 has a good flat section to which a magnetic tape can be affixed without a housing as normally used?

If not a milled strip of aluminum can be made to mount a tape in.

I've been on the hunt for a great deal on a 706 so I can convert it to rocketronics els so I want to have a firm idea exactly how to mount magnetic tape for dro
'd use magnetic, and embed a magnetic tape on the underside of the cross slide, with the head mounted at the back of the cross slide.
Click to expand...


No, you will need a mount for the Z axis. It's close but not close enough IMO. Lots of room for glass scales back there as well.
And no, IMO no place under the cross slide to mount tape and then mount the read on the back. I linnked before to the model of the G0602 lathe, you can use that to verify fitting and mounting. The X axis motor mount would likely also interfere with read head.
 
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Underside of G0602/KC1022 cross slide and slim scale mounted on headstock side of cross slide. the read head mounts underneath the bracket shown with allen driver through it.
 

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TorontoBuilder said:
where are unassembled DROs to be found? This is news to me
Click to expand...
store.touchdro.com

Do-it-Yourself DRO Kit

TouchDRO TDK-40 is an easy to build 4-axis DRO adapter kit that supports RS-422 (differential) and TTL (single-ended) glass and magnetic DRO scales and other 5V quadrature encoders. It uses the same powerful 32-bit architecture and differential input circuits as the TDA-4xx adapters and offers...
store.touchdro.com
It claims to require some soldering, which I don't remember doing on either of mine, but it might just have been so trivial I don't remember it...
And looking at it now I see he's changed the design a bit, so there are a bunch of pin headers to solder.
Easy, but if it ain't your gig, I understand.
But I bet you can find a member nearby who could do this in 15 minutes. If you can't find anyone I'll happily assemble it for you and ship it along.

Paul
 
gerritv said:
Underside of G0602/KC1022 cross slide and slim scale mounted on headstock side of cross slide. the read head mounts underneath the bracket shown with allen driver through it.
Click to expand...
sure you can mill a slot in the underside to install a tape

Id need to see one to see if a read head could be installed
 
TorontoBuilder said:
@trlvn can you confirm that the base casting of a 706 has a good flat section to which a magnetic tape can be affixed without a housing as normally used?

If not a milled strip of aluminum can be made to mount a tape in.

I've been on the hunt for a great deal on a 706 so I can convert it to rocketronics els so I want to have a firm idea exactly how to mount magnetic tape for dro
Click to expand...

I haven't looked in any detail at mounting a DRO on the lathe at this point. I'm hoping to use the Shooting Star mechanical scales if and when I get to it. Plus I'm using glass scales on the new DRO for my mill so I really don't know anything about magnetic scales. The October discussion or glass v. magnetic that DavidR linked to swayed me that way.

Finally, GerritV's posts look good to me.

Craig
 
TorontoBuilder said:
sure you can mill a slot in the underside to install a tape

Id need to see one to see if a read head could be installed
Click to expand...
IMHO there is not enough meat there to cut a groove. Don't remember where I saw it but someone made their top slide into a banana making some mods. There isn't a lot of meat in them.
 
gerritv said:
IMHO there is not enough meat there to cut a groove. Don't remember where I saw it but someone made their top slide into a banana making some mods. There isn't a lot of meat in them.
Click to expand...

I can't speak for all lathes. Mine already has the clearance for the strip, but just barely. I am planning to skim about 10 thou off just to improve the clearance. Most cross-slides are prolly similar. It's not like anyone needs to take a tenth or more off.

The advantages of an internal scale are just too compelling to brush off without at least a cursory assessment of the possibility.
 
This is the state of my 3D model of the CX706 cross and compound slides. The area circled in blue is where I would prefer to have the read head mounted but the spacing seems to be tight. Might have to install the head in the back of the carriage with a bracket. Is it just me or trying to find 3D models of linear scales is not easy! Looking at the dimensions of the Ditron DC10F is one thing, adding it to my model is another :)

1731855127307.png
 
lucsimoneau said:
This is the state of my 3D model of the CX706 cross and compound slides.
Click to expand...

Wow! Very impressive modelling - even the tools on the splash gaurd!!!

I can't speak to 3D models of scales. I'm all old school still. What I can do is highly recommend that you forget BOTH FRONT AND REAR mounting. Front is too subject to damage cuz it's too close to all the action, and rear is in the way of the tailstock.

Instead, look at putting the scale INSIDE the cross-slide! Basically, you put the scale on the top half of the cross-slide and the reader at the back attached to the saddle. No dirt, no damage, neat and tidy.

Mine is a close fit without any machining at all. But I plan to cut another 10 thou off for extra clearance anyway.

Several of us have done this or are planning to, and we are all quite happy!
 
Susquatch said:
I can't speak for all lathes. Mine already has the clearance for the strip, but just barely. I am planning to skim about 10 thou off just to improve the clearance. Most cross-slides are prolly similar. It's not like anyone needs to take a tenth or more off.

The advantages of an internal scale are just too compelling to brush off without at least a cursory assessment of the possibility.
Click to expand...
I agree that one should make a fair assessment,

While I dont expect much from 10x22 lathes I dont think it is impossible to make a very shallow groove without damaging the cross slide. Hving seen the mods of many 10x22 users I am inclined to suspect that some ham fisted clown may have milled the grand canyon in his cross slide then they only needed to take the slightest cut.

What I do recommend in any case is not rushing to make a rash decision based on the availability of sale pricing. Do research, make careful assessment and then wait for a sale rather than making a rash decision and you can avoid disappointment.

Im a planner
 
On 1022 lathes the slide uncovers the back end of the saddle when fully forward so I don't see how this will work. You would then need an Al backing, can't just glue it to underside of the slide. And of course everything is then exposed again.
It might be possible to carve a hole in the saddle to mount the read head but then there seems to be no way to align or adjust it to the magnetic strip.
Since noone seems to be looking at an actual 1022, I suggest downloading the various files from https://www.wadeodesign.com/cnc-lathe-documentation.html so that you can play WhatIf with CAD tools. If all you want is drawings download the Mechanical Drawings package. Works for G0602/0752 and KC1022 lathes. Likely for most parts of the CX706 as well.
 
gerritv said:
On 1022 lathes the slide uncovers the back end of the saddle when fully forward so I don't see how this will work. You would then need an Al backing, can't just glue it to underside of the slide. And of course everything is then exposed again.
It might be possible to carve a hole in the saddle to mount the read head but then there seems to be no way to align or adjust it to the magnetic strip.
Since noone seems to be looking at an actual 1022, I suggest downloading the various files from https://www.wadeodesign.com/cnc-lathe-documentation.html so that you can play WhatIf with CAD tools. If all you want is drawings download the Mechanical Drawings package. Works for G0602/0752 and KC1022 lathes. Likely for most parts of the CX706 as well.
Click to expand...

I archived my old photos, but the slide can be extended like I did on master 2500 cross slide.

If I dont find a 10x22 to work on in person I'll try these cad files, thx
 
gerritv said:
On 1022 lathes the slide uncovers the back end of the saddle when fully forward so I don't see how this will work. You would then need an Al backing, can't just glue it to underside of the slide. And of course everything is then exposed again.
It might be possible to carve a hole in the saddle to mount the read head but then there seems to be no way to align or adjust it to the magnetic strip.
Since noone seems to be looking at an actual 1022, I suggest downloading the various files from https://www.wadeodesign.com/cnc-lathe-documentation.html so that you can play WhatIf with CAD tools. If all you want is drawings download the Mechanical Drawings package. Works for G0602/0752 and KC1022 lathes. Likely for most parts of the CX706 as well.
Click to expand...
I have already used his 3D model but like everything else, it's just not the same dimensions as the actual machine tool (CX706) that I have in my garage. I'm also pretty old school getting closer to old age pension but prefer to model everything based on my own measurements. Thanks for the info!!!!
 
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