# DRO on my YAM Lathe



## gunner312 (Apr 1, 2020)

Well, in that we are all bored and searching for something to do. My wife bought a DRO kit (Chinese) for my lathe. (14 X 40 Yam).

I installed the X(Y) axis and the Z Axis scales and powered it up, It worked well except that it was a pain to get it to finally read as a Lathe. The directions are in chinglish and are sadly missing some essential information as usual with Chinese made items.

Fired the lathe up and made a few cuts on steel and brass and it seemed to be doing as it is supposed to . and then.......... I made some heavy cuts in steel and turned on the flood coolant as I usually do when making a cut of .150 per side in mild steel Now the Z axis scale has quit working.

Actually it does still work in a fashion, if I let it dry out for a few days it will flicker and in places it will actually work. I'm trying to find a way to keep coolant off the glass scales. The scale on the cross slide seems to be well-protected and out of harms way but the Z axis scale is worthless because of its vulnerability to coolant.  I thought I had the scale shielded from coolant but murphy seems to be in action.

Are there any suggestions as to how I can cure the problem?

Jim


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## awake (Apr 22, 2020)

Jim, I was going back through and finding posts that I had missed - including this one. I don't have an answer to your question, but hopefully by responding I will bring it back up to the top where someone else may see it and have an answer.


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## gunner312 (Apr 23, 2020)

gunner312 said:


> Well, in that we are all bored and searching for something to do. My wife bought a DRO kit (Chinese) for my lathe. (14 X 40 Yam).
> 
> I installed the X(Y) axis and the Z Axis scales and powered it up, It worked well except that it was a pain to get it to finally read as a Lathe. The directions are in chinglish and are sadly missing some essential information as usual with Chinese made items.
> 
> ...


Well,  I finally got around to doing something about the DRO problem.  I turned the scale 90 degrees so that the seal was on the bottom, this also involved re-fabricating the connection to the saddle of the lathe so that it drags the scale reader in the correct direction and keeps it in the correct distance from the scale inside the scale bar. So far it works great even with flood coolant. 

Just wish I could suss out the correct way to make sure it is reading the correct distance. It seems to be within a couple of 10ths but I'd still like to calibrate it.


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## Cogsy (Apr 24, 2020)

gunner312 said:


> Just wish I could suss out the correct way to make sure it is reading the correct distance. It seems to be within a couple of 10ths but I'd still like to calibrate it.



You could face off a bar then zero the dro at that point and measure the bar length from the chuck jaws (mark which jaw you measure from). Now turn the bar down for some specific length and measure from that step to the marked jaw. That distance, plus the distance your DRO is showing you moved from the facing should equal the bar length you measure initially. If you can't measure the distances accurately enough to detect a few tenths difference, then you're never going to detect the issue in any finished part either so it's not worth worrying about!


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## awake (Apr 24, 2020)

Good point. If you can't measure it, then it doesn't exist. Right?


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## bluejets (Apr 25, 2020)

gunner312 said:


> The directions are in chinglish and are sadly missing some essential information as usual with Chinese made items.



Many of these are from the same manufacturer.
Can you show the make and model, and a couple of photos.
Someone may be able to help out with instructions.


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## Ivan Winters (Apr 26, 2020)

The directions are in chinglish and are sadly missing some essential information as usual with Chinese made items. 

These lathes are made in Taiwan not the Corona-virus Republic of China !


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