# Add Digital scales to your Mini Lathe



## Roger Pry (Mar 31, 2019)

When I bought this mini lathe for my little home machine shop I knew that positioning to any degree of accuracy was going to have to been done using some other method than the screw scales. So I bought a pair of these digital scales new on Ebay for dirt cheap and made my own mounting brackets and it worked superbly. The lathe itself needs tuning up and ways work but once that is done adding these scales gave me a very good and acurate machine.  You would be surprised to know that getting to .001 on several parts was achieved.... couldn't believe it my self. So here are photos showing how I mounted the cross and long brackets. Hope you can enjoy this...


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## deeferdog (Mar 31, 2019)

Nice setup Roger. I get as much fun modifying machines as using them so I know how you feel. Well done. Cheers, Peter.


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## Cogsy (Apr 2, 2019)

Nice work getting those type of scales to read consistently. I had a couple of sets on my mill that looked exactly the same though the weren't the same brand and they were completely unreliable (jumping readings or just continuing to count after movement stopped, etc.). It doesn't surprise me that you could achieve 1 thou accuracy with the lathe though - on mine 7X (now virtually retired) I was able to hit 0.01 mm without a lot of trouble so they're very capable machines when set up and dialed in correctly. I wish I could get my larger lathe to be as accurate.


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