Grizzly $25 DRO Query
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black85vette
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websterz said:
Got my 35" yesterday. Plus my air spring conversion arrived today. Hmmmmm. I see some work on the mill coming up.
black85vette
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Got my DROs extended. Put the air spring on the mill and then cut the DRO to fit. Now have about 10" of Z axis travel and a DRO to match it.
Took a length of the remaining material and cut a section to fit the X axis. So I now have DRO for the full travel of the X axis.
Y axis was already good as the 6" original DRO was longer than necessary.
With the spring and arm assembly removed to do the air spring install there was plenty of room for the DRO.
Here is a pic
Took a length of the remaining material and cut a section to fit the X axis. So I now have DRO for the full travel of the X axis.
Y axis was already good as the 6" original DRO was longer than necessary.
With the spring and arm assembly removed to do the air spring install there was plenty of room for the DRO.
Here is a pic
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That looks like a nice fit B85V! I guess I need to look into the air spring thingie to make room on mine.
A couple of questions for you:
Was the air spring an LMS upgrade part?
Have you extended your Z axis?
On the bar, is there a cell that denotes absolute zero? If so, did you lose that tracking ability with the cutoff piece? Not that it matters I guess.
-Trout
A couple of questions for you:
Was the air spring an LMS upgrade part?
Have you extended your Z axis?
On the bar, is there a cell that denotes absolute zero? If so, did you lose that tracking ability with the cutoff piece? Not that it matters I guess.
-Trout
black85vette
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Troutsqueezer said:
Trout; Yes the air spring was from LMS. Very reasonable price. Has all the hardware AND it has the longer gear rack to extend the Z axis included. Easy to install with just 3 holes to tap. Highly recommend this one.
I am not sure this type of DRO has an absolute zero as part of the bar. These are different than the digital calipers. The calipers send out two bits of information (as I understand it) a reference to absolute zero and a distance relative to the last time the "zero" button was hit. The scale with the remote readout sends no position information at all. Rather the sensor on the bar sends "movement" information telling the remote display how much it moved and in which direction. The display then tracks the distance.
I have been very happy with my scales, even limited to 6" of travel they were very useful. I have placed swarf shields over them because after seeing the inside I think that bits of metal will do damage over time.
black85vette said:
Just for grins and to put another bug in their ear--I emailed Grizzly about when they might offer the longer versions (since they were now available "elsewhere").
Got a response that they don't have any info on when/if they might get them and that they usually only intro new products at the beginning of the year. Hmmmm, I'd rather buy 'em from Grizzly but don't know if I want to wait another 6-7 months. Hopefully the iGaging guy is more up to speed than the Grizzly reps.
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black85vette said:
So if I understand, you can cut the bar down and it will still work? I'm thinking of buying the 24" but it would be a tad too long for my mill drill. Would pobably have to cut down to 22" length.
Chuck
black85vette
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cfellows said:
Yep. Found no problem with cutting the bar. It appears to be a continuous strip of material. I cut it on the band saw with a fine tooth and then touched it up with a disc sander. If it is too long you can always leave the end hanging out past the mount, if you have room.
Considering the price of the longer one, you might do like I did and buy a 35".
Best price I have found so far is the guy selling through Amazon.
After waiting nearly 2 weeks for my 35" DRO I e-mailed the company and told them what I thought of their shipping department. As it turns out (or so they claim) some nimrod put my fully packaged and ready to ship order INSIDE another order and sent it out. My new DRO has supposedly been jetsetting around the planet and is now en-route to me at long last, with a free gift for my troubles. Keep the damn $5 Chinese digital caliper or whatever cheap piece of crap they feel is just compensation for my wait and get me my damn DRO already! I am not a happy camper. 
Grizzly now has the longer scales online. Sweeeet.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/0-6-Digital-Fractional-Horizontal-Vertical-Remote-Scale/T21577
http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-Remote-Digital-Readout-Inch-Metric-Fraction/T23012
http://www.grizzly.com/products/0-6-Digital-Fractional-Horizontal-Vertical-Remote-Scale/T21577
http://www.grizzly.com/products/12-Remote-Digital-Readout-Inch-Metric-Fraction/T23012
black85vette
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Interesting that they kept denying that they were going to add these products any time soon. Still, happy to have them at good prices. However I already bought mine from elsewhere since I didn't know how long (if ever) it was going to be.
BTW the 6" is on sale for $22.95!! Hard to beat that. Thm:
BTW the 6" is on sale for $22.95!! Hard to beat that. Thm:
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Now that I've had mine installed for a few weeks I'm like a spoiled little puppy dog... :big:
websterz said:After waiting nearly 2 weeks for my 35" DRO I e-mailed the company and told them what I thought of their shipping department. As it turns out (or so they claim) some nimrod put my fully packaged and ready to ship order INSIDE another order and sent it out. My new DRO has supposedly been jetsetting around the planet and is now en-route to me at long last, with a free gift for my troubles. Keep the damn $5 Chinese digital caliper or whatever cheap piece of crap they feel is just compensation for my wait and get me my damn DRO already! I am not a happy camper.
Want to have a good chuckle? The company I bought mine from, that sent it to the wrong address, had the guy take it to the UPS store and mail it to me. Asking a customer to cover their butts and do their shipping for them. Ain't that a hoot??!!! Any reputable place would have fired me out a replacement next day air and not kept me waiting for 3 damn weeks. I am fit to be tied.
I am going to get trash cans thrown at me from all directions now.
We were doing all you are doing here about four or five years ago, and finally came to the conclusion it really wasn't worth the bother.
Ok, you can most probably get a DRO 'setup' for just over a hundred bucks, but for how long.
We found that about 6 months was a good length of time before they started to go wrong and you were chasing your tail trying to repair them or get replacements. Normally, it was a lot sooner than that.
Of course, if you only use you mill only very occasionally, and you clean up every microscopic bit of swarf and dust from them and use no lubricants at all, them maybe you will have a system that will last for a fair while, but otherwise, expect all sorts of problems, especially when the damned things fail half way thru a critical machining operation, DAMHIK, but it happened many times.
When I set my 'cheapo' system up, I extolled it, just like yourselves. But time and experience soon showed me I had made a mistake, and after spending more than a top quality system to keep it going, I gave up and dug deep, changing over to that 'professional' system has really taught me, when it comes to cheap DRO's, unless you can keep them in a totally clean area (I use one on my quill) they are just not worth bothering with.
Save you pennies a little longer, and invest in the good stuff. Even a cheapo glass scale one will knock spots off what you are trying to do with these.
We were doing all you are doing here about four or five years ago, and finally came to the conclusion it really wasn't worth the bother.
Ok, you can most probably get a DRO 'setup' for just over a hundred bucks, but for how long.
We found that about 6 months was a good length of time before they started to go wrong and you were chasing your tail trying to repair them or get replacements. Normally, it was a lot sooner than that.
Of course, if you only use you mill only very occasionally, and you clean up every microscopic bit of swarf and dust from them and use no lubricants at all, them maybe you will have a system that will last for a fair while, but otherwise, expect all sorts of problems, especially when the damned things fail half way thru a critical machining operation, DAMHIK, but it happened many times.
When I set my 'cheapo' system up, I extolled it, just like yourselves. But time and experience soon showed me I had made a mistake, and after spending more than a top quality system to keep it going, I gave up and dug deep, changing over to that 'professional' system has really taught me, when it comes to cheap DRO's, unless you can keep them in a totally clean area (I use one on my quill) they are just not worth bothering with.
Save you pennies a little longer, and invest in the good stuff. Even a cheapo glass scale one will knock spots off what you are trying to do with these.
fcheslop
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Sorry guys, I agree with Mr Bogs Went down this route 2 years ago and although every thing initially worked fine it was a very short honey moon and ended up chasing my own tail spending far to much money repairing the system and have ended up scrapping it .Currently back to the fag paper until I buy a new mill . The problems my system suffered from was keeping fine particles and cutting fluid out of the scales the z axis was never any problem.Sorry
regards Frazer
regards Frazer
black85vette
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I am willing to be wrong here (and have been before). But also willing to take a chance at this low price. First of all these scales are NOT the same ones that were available several years ago. The electronics are remotely located and not subject to particles and fluid. Second; I have put swarf shields on all of mine and keep them very clean. At under $25 a set I can afford to keep a spare, replace them when necessary and still be well ahead of the game.
I just can't get my head around spending twice as much for scales as I did for my mill. ??? ???
Also willing to be the crash test dummy (guess that term is appropriate) on this. If my scales go south quickly I will warn everyone else about it and give permission to all to say "I told you so". I will then eat my humble pie and claim it tasted good.
There will be no trash cans thrown at you Bogs. (maybe a nerf ball or two) ;D
I just can't get my head around spending twice as much for scales as I did for my mill. ??? ???
Also willing to be the crash test dummy (guess that term is appropriate) on this. If my scales go south quickly I will warn everyone else about it and give permission to all to say "I told you so". I will then eat my humble pie and claim it tasted good.
There will be no trash cans thrown at you Bogs. (maybe a nerf ball or two) ;D
Vette,
I was in no way saying your decision is wrong to go with them, but I had to warn people what they MIGHT come across in the future.
I hope I get to eat my words and things do work out for you, because at one time, I was in the same situation as a lot of members on here, who can't afford to spend lots of readies on their hobby. That is the reason I tried them out in the first place.
Just maybe a reminder to get them to last longer, get the read heads and scales protected as much as you can, as without that protection, you don't stand a chance, as even my expensive jobbies would soon start to fail if I took their protective covers off.
Bogs
I was in no way saying your decision is wrong to go with them, but I had to warn people what they MIGHT come across in the future.
I hope I get to eat my words and things do work out for you, because at one time, I was in the same situation as a lot of members on here, who can't afford to spend lots of readies on their hobby. That is the reason I tried them out in the first place.
Just maybe a reminder to get them to last longer, get the read heads and scales protected as much as you can, as without that protection, you don't stand a chance, as even my expensive jobbies would soon start to fail if I took their protective covers off.
Bogs
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It's certainly worth noting Bogs and your wisdom is not lost on us.
At this price ($22 for 6", $35 for 12"), it's worth testing that word "might" because if they do hold up, the gain is huge. As evidenced by some of my earlier posts in this thread, the word quality doesn't belong in the same sentence as iGage. It is always in the back of my mind that the risk for something to go wrong is high. I'd replace them once a year at that price if need be, or more.
Like most of us here, my eyesight is not what it used to be and I sure like looking at those readouts as opposed to scratch lines. Of course it's even easier to see those brightly lit LED's like you've got there and I would say the extent that you are involved in this hobby justifies the expense. In your position I would do the same. But for an X2 mill, eh....
-Trout
At this price ($22 for 6", $35 for 12"), it's worth testing that word "might" because if they do hold up, the gain is huge. As evidenced by some of my earlier posts in this thread, the word quality doesn't belong in the same sentence as iGage. It is always in the back of my mind that the risk for something to go wrong is high. I'd replace them once a year at that price if need be, or more.
Like most of us here, my eyesight is not what it used to be and I sure like looking at those readouts as opposed to scratch lines. Of course it's even easier to see those brightly lit LED's like you've got there and I would say the extent that you are involved in this hobby justifies the expense. In your position I would do the same. But for an X2 mill, eh....
-Trout
