Looking for DrO for Mill Drill

[44-henry]

I purchased a Jet 15 Mill Drill a few years back and now I'm interested in adding a digital readout to it. I've had some experience with the Shooting Star readouts that we use in my lab at work; however, the $500+ price seems a bit extreme compared to the $200 I paid for the mill. Are there any other less expensive options other than just working with the dial markings that are currently metric?

 

[lugnut]

Henry this is where they are going to get even with you for getting a mill so cheep ;D
I have used some of the $26 digital calipers clamped to the mill and got by pretty well. there are several outfits that sell digital scales that would be better and some even sell readout stations and cables that attach to the scales. Grizzly has some scales and some guys on Ebay sell setups that would work, but they are all more than you paid for your mill. do some googleing and check them out
almost forgot! do a search here on this forum for DRO there are lots of ideas
Mel

 

[hitandmissman]

I have a Micro-Mark mill that I put a DRO bought off e-bay for $350. This DRO was cheap and looked good. After installing it and using it I have to say it looks good but is useless. It is the type that uses calipers with cables to the display. The cables will not stay hooked to the calipers and vibration causes them to loose contact, thus your display goes blank. I do not recommend a cheap DRO, you get what you pay for. Use either a plane mounted caliper or save for a better(read $600 and up)DRO you will be better pleased.

 

[stevehuckss396]

I have a Micro-Mark mill that I put a DRO bought off e-bay for $350. This DRO was cheap and looked good. After installing it and using it I have to say it looks good but is useless. It is the type that uses calipers with cables to the display. The cables will not stay hooked to the calipers and vibration causes them to loose contact, thus your display goes blank. I do not recommend a cheap DRO, you get what you pay for. Use either a plane mounted caliper or save for a better(read $600 and up)DRO you will be better pleased.

I purchased the same system. It has been on the mill for almost 2 years and I have never had a failure in the midst of a milling session. Everything works very well for the money.
I was happy enough to get one for the 9X20 lathe tho it is not installed yet.

 

[firebird]

Hi Henry

I fitted DRO to my X1 mill. Have a look at my post DRO on the mill. This should be the link.

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=600.msg4062;topicseen#msg4062

Cheers

Rich

 

[Noitoen]

Hi,

Take a look at this. http://www.optimum-machines.com/products/measuring-instruments/mpa-3/index.html It uses a magnetic tape and sensor.

 

[BillH]

44 Henry, I also noticed your cross post on HomeShopMachinist.
The cheapest solution is either a ShumaTech DRO kit and using HF digital calipers as scales, or doing what David Kofer suggested, taking a digital caliper, some stainless steel wire and a spring and using that as a remote DRO.