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Igauging linear scales

Crosche

Super User
12 & 24 inch digital scales with mounting brackets and individual digital readouts. The scales are new in the boxes. Asking $70 for the pair.
 

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YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
So... who's offering the best price, TK or Cr? I'd be interested in mounting them on my lathe.
 

Crosche

Super User
Thanks for the great deal. Nice shop BTB. I'll want to visit again when you have that CNC up and running.

Craig

Hope you put those scales to good use. You are more than welcome to come by any time. The CNC mill should be up and running next week if Canada Post delivery forecast is accurate.

- Chad
 

Bofobo

M,Mizera(BOFOBO)
My install of the competition pair available here
So I picked up a set of IGAGING DRO scales from my CX709 from TomK and I installed them over the past week. I used only supplied hardware and still need to consolidate the wires, which might come in the form of the coolant tower (still to come, tap purchased) but my cross slide and carriage now have digital read outs.

I had an abandoned approach I show here and I need to mill out some more carriage crossslide material for an extra 1/2” of use but I can do without as the scale would contact the back splash with it. Stoked about it View attachment 8024View attachment 8025View attachment 8026View attachment 8027View attachment 8028View attachment 8029View attachment 8030View attachment 8031View attachment 8032View attachment 8033View attachment 8034View attachment 8035View attachment 8036View attachment 8037View attachment 8038View attachment 8039View attachment 8040View attachment 8041
 

YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
Well..... after much dithering over how to proceed, I finally got my scales installed.

X-AXIS.JPG

For the X-AXIS I mounted a piece of hardwood on top of the taper attachment bracket, attached the scale to the hardwood strip and secured the data reader to the saddle utilizing one of the unused follower rest mounting points. Voila.... didn't have to drill and tap any holes:)

Y-AXIS.JPG

The Y-AXIS proved to be a real challenge. I couldn't use @Bofobo's approach due to my taper attachment getting in the way. If I mounted the scale across the top of the saddle the data reader bumped into things (chuck, tailstock etc). Finally, I came up with this. It looks clumsy, but it seems to work ok and is out of the way and I only had to drill and tap one small hole in the taper attachment extension.

LCDS.JPG

It all seems to work pretty well. On the X-AXIS the DRO reads spot one against my dial indicator. On the Y-AXIS the DRO reads spot on against the cross slide dial and my dial indicator.

I'm pretty pleased over all.
 
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Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
Yeah I may have to do same thing with my Y scale - that stickout does not look great but sometimes you have no choice.
 

DavidR8

Scrap maker
Administrator
Moderator
Premium Member
I think that's how I'd have put one on my SB. Darn cross-slide is all curved and sloped.
 

Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
On mine there is simply not space to fit it - on the chuck side I have attachment for follow rest and on the other side I have adjustment screws...

One thing I worry about it hanging like that is support - I guess for 7" its not a big deal but for longer length the scale would have tiny bow in it due to its own weight.
 

YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
FRestPoints.JPG

For this install I took possession of the FR attachment points. If I somehow snag or make a FR I'll have to reposition.

HangOut.JPG

It bow's alright. I'm thinking of doubling up or tripling up on that support bracket. That scale is a good 6" longer than it needs to be so that doesn't help. I could cut it down if I wanted. An annoying thing about these scales is that the data reader takes up a good 3", so to get 6" of travel you need to mount 9" of scale.

The slickest (neatest) DRO install I have seen on a lathe to date is what @eotrfish has on his EMCO.

Craig
 

Bofobo

M,Mizera(BOFOBO)
View attachment 8218

For this install I took possession of the FR attachment points. If I somehow snag or make a FR I'll have to reposition.

View attachment 8219

It bow's alright. I'm thinking of doubling up or tripling up on that support bracket. That scale is a good 6" longer than it needs to be so that doesn't help. I could cut it down if I wanted. An annoying thing about these scales is that the data reader takes up a good 3", so to get 6" of travel you need to mount 9" of scale.

The slickest (neatest) DRO install I have seen on a lathe to date is what @eotrfish has on his EMCO.

Craig
Only need about half the reader on the bar ..... the trick is keeping the reader and bar engaged, that's how I managed mine to fit within the chip guard. Tweeting time was under an hour for that knowledge acquisition
 

PeterT

Ultra Member
Premium Member
The slickest (neatest) DRO install I have seen on a lathe to date is what @eotrfish has on his EMCO.

I agree. Part of why that was possible is Newal Microsyn have small diameter encoders 6.5mm dia tube, relatively compact & re-orientable reader heads & smart mounting/adjustment hardware. They are spendy though. The Chinese glass scale systems are just getting better & better, price & quality wise. I wouldn't think twice about the systems out there now, they are a fraction of the cost of what DRO's were even 5 years ago. The only downside is they still seem to be a bit bulkier. Not as much an issue on a bigger lathe but more challenging on small machine available real estate. But where there is a will there's a way as you have shown.
 

YYCHM

(Craig)
Premium Member
Soooo.... that aluminium flat bar support wasn't working for me. When you moved the cross slide from stop to stop you could see the end of scale rise and fall a good 5mm.

HW1 (1).JPG

So, I replaced it with a piece of hardwood that leveraged against the fact I could use the taper attachment slide bar as an additional support point. Not seeing any deflection on the end of the scale now.

HW1 (2).JPG

HW1 (3).JPG

Had to mill that HW bar to make her fit which was a interesting experience.

Cheers,

Craig
 
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