Digital Read Out Suggestions - Metal Lathe

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dirtycurty

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Location
Central Alberta
Can anyone suggest a reputable DRO for a 14x40 Grizzly Metal Lathe? I'd like to purchase one but I am not familiar with a reputable brand and can't find a whole lot of reviews online. Any information would be great. I'd prefer to buy from a Canadian distributor but would consider American as well. Thanks in Advance.
 
You can look up Steve Bedair's website. He installed one on his grizzly G4003g and gives you instructions. I like the mods he did on his different machines.
 
Personal bias, but what ever model you choose go with mag scales not glass. You can cut mag, you can't do anything with glass. They cost $20 bucks more on average but they're worth it.

First thing I'd do is check Griz and see what they have on offer. It never hurts to deal with the people who know the machine best as a first choice.

Buying used can be an option. As long as the guy who used it wasn't a BPJ maniac or prolific wanker they hold up very well.

If you're going new you need to decide whether you're going full pro or you're going to try to get the best quality economy model you can. Mittutoyo has an excellent rep, Fagor also. See what's popular in your local market first then if necessary expand out. You might save twenty bucks buying online but it can be very handy to build a relationship with your local machine tools guy for the future.

In econo models DRO Pro's are generally well recomended. h ttp://www.kijiji.ca/v-business-industrial/city-of-toronto/digital-readout-systems-2-axis-for-mills-lathes-from-499/1014420360?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true
<-- this guy was refered to me as being pretty good but I can't vouch for him more than that. Maybe try googling him for reviews.
 
MHO:

I got a Sino and am extremely happy with it.

There are 2 quality groups into which all DROs fit, Chicom and brand name such as Newall.
I believe all the Chicom units come from the same place, buy 10 and you can have 'dirtycurty' printed on it.

There are 3 encoder types, glass graticule, magnetic, and rack/pinion(which I believe to be a bad idea for a DRO).

Installation is critical regardless of what you spend on the DRO.
Put all the care into it that you will be putting into your machining because a badly installed Newall won't work as well as a properly installed POS.

I think that all adds up to 2 cents.

If you decide to go Chicom, check out Accusize.
Very good guy to deal with in Toronto.
 
I do it as a hobby, but I like to have good gear. I don't mind spending the extra money so long as the quality is there. I will check with Grizzly, but as GSG stated, I like to buy local if I can. I will definitely be buying new as it's served me well as to buying used. I will check out all your suggestions.
 
I bought a Sino from a fellow in Sk. that brings in container lots from China and resells them. Price was good. He sells on the PracicalMachinist site byaworski, username.
He often has used as well as new, Newall stuff around too. Worth contacting, IMO.

The 2 axis for the lathe, and a 3 axis for a friend's milling machine, shipped CanPar to me, was ~$900 going by memory.

I did a couple installs of AcuRite glass scales, and they called out a maximum misalignment of .060" over the length of the scale. You can pretty much align that with a wooden yardstick. It's not hard to do a great deal better than that by eye, so don't sweat that process too much before you dig in. It's pretty straightforward unless you have to get fancy with a mount hung way off in the middle of nowhere to try to clear other parts of the machine. If you stick to just attaching the scale directly to the machine, there are an awful lot of accurately made straight parts there to reference off of.

Cheers
Trev
 
Newall is the best way to go, in my opinion. Bauer equipment is in Vancouver, not sure about distributors in Edmonton area. Warranty is the best in the biz, and I've been very happy with Bauer's support, not that I have needed very much at all. I run Newall on 3 lathes, 2 horizontal boring mills, and 1 knee mill. One of the boring mills came to me with Accurite readouts and glass scales, which were removed and replaced with Newall during the installation. Installation is pretty simple.
 
Newall is the way to go. They pioneered the ball scale, maybe they are still the only ones.

Bauer Industrial Equipment in Vancouver, the guy who used to come to Edmonton was Dave Bueck.....or, Buick, been a while.


http://www.bauerltd.ca/


Fagor is junk, (like most everything they make)Mitutoyo is good but expensive.
 
There's a few options depending on budget.
Nothing overly wrong with the chinese ones like Sino.
Acu-rite has a nice system and their back up spar kit is the best for installation, in most cases. I've installed a dozen of those and use a 3axis on my mill(great mill DRO, not so great for lathes due to display button layout as far as I'm concerned)
Some love newall, personally I don't and I know a few other guys who took them off machines that came with them and replaced with acu-rite or Heidenhain. (heidenhain ND-730 is my favorite lathe DRO but it hasn't been made in 12+yrs)

If I remember right a 2axis acu-rite is in the $2000 range, which is quite reasonable and service/replacement/repair if ever needed in the US is excellent.
 
dirtycurty said:
Can anyone suggest a reputable DRO for a 14x40 Grizzly Metal Lathe? I'd like to purchase one but I am not familiar with a reputable brand and can't find a whole lot of reviews online. Any information would be great. I'd prefer to buy from a Canadian distributor but would consider American as well. Thanks in Advance.
Click to expand...

Theres Thomas Skinner and Son in Edmonton, they'd be worth a visit.
 
Suputin said:
I have DRO Pros systems on my lathe and mill. They seem to work OK.
Click to expand...

Just OK..... Any more insight/first hand opinions would be much appreciated. Which models do you have? I want to put a lathe specific DRO on my lathe and was thinking about the EL400 display from them. How long have you had them?
 
Don't remember the model off the top of my head but the EL400 sounds familiar. I've had them around 3 years now. They always seem to work fine. Like anything you still need to measure stuff as you get close to the dimension you want. I don't use nearly all of the functions on the DRO as I should.
 
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