New mill is on the way

[petertha]

Thats a nice looking mill. What are you considering for DRO?

 

[gbritnell]

I was looking at a site called DROPROS. They have good prices on glass scales and they also have the new magnetic type. For a comparable set of magnetics they run about $300 more. I don't know if I like them that much. They have good prices on the Asian sets on Ebay but I don't know how easy it would be to get replacement parts. DROPROS has a good reputation and they back up their sales with service, at least that's what I hear.
George

 

[kcmillin]

Congrats George! It is much bigger looking sitting next to your pick-up than in the catalog.

I was looking at a site called DROPROS. They have good prices on glass scales and they also have the new magnetic type. For a comparable set of magnetics they run about $300 more. I don't know if I like them that much. They have good prices on the Asian sets on Ebay but I don't know how easy it would be to get replacement parts. DROPROS has a good reputation and they back up their sales with service, at least that's what I hear.
George

FWIW, in my unbiased and unaffiliated opinion

I have a DRO PRO's unit, and I am incredibly pleased with it. Their service is great, and they are willing to help in any way.

The unit itself is very easy to use. I can actually use and understand all the functions. The corner rounding function is a great addition. Along with Sub Datum Point Memory. Most common things can be done with one button.

I use Anilam DRO's at work, and the functions are limited and very difficult to use, rendering them nothing more than a number counter. In fact, I would be much more productive at work if I had a DRO PRO's unit, and it is a third of the price.

Kel

 

[kustomkb]

Hi George,

I was just kidding about the extra shop space. I know you have a great set-up.

I hope the move goes smooth!

 

[RonGinger]

I will second, or third, that on DROPROS. I bought their lathe set about a year ago and it has been excellent. I was very pleased at its quality- a heavy cast aluminum control box, all the parts well made.

It came with a small bent sheet piece, I think stainless stuck onto the center of the scale. I could not figure out what it was for, and it was not shown in the manual. So I called the 800 number and talked to a tech. He was kind of embarrassed to admit they had never figured out what they are for either. He guessed it was some kind of shim used in the final test and they just got stuck on and shipped.

A fine unit, an excellent price and good support.

 

[gbritnell]

Hi Ron and Kel,
What dro did you get, the glass scales or the magnetic?
Thanks,
George

 

[RonGinger]

I got mine over a year ago and only the glass scales were offered. I did get the high res ones, so I see the full tenths. Its a bit annoying actually, as the last decimal place tends to wobble a lot- even the slightest machine vibration will move it.

 

[kcmillin]

Hi Ron and Kel,
What dro did you get, the glass scales or the magnetic?
Thanks,
George

I , Like Ron, purchased it before the magnetic scales were offered. I did not get the high res scales, but I am very pleased with .0002" res. More than enough, .0005" would be fine for what I do, even at work.

The fella I talked to over the phone said they have never had a scale returned due to contamination. It does come with a really nice warranty.

I have heard that the cheap DRO's you can get on e-bay from China are limited to metric only when using the fancy functions like corner rounding and bolt hole pattern, but I cannot be certain of this.

Kel

 

[dalem9]

I have a Grissly DRO and love it.it's so nice to make a mating part and have it fit perficly . My work is so much better now it's just so nice to have .Dale

 

[Blogwitch]

George,

If you are after read head info, this site is well worth looking through as you can get all the specs.

http://www.machine-dro.co.uk/digital-readout-systems.html

You will find attached a screen grab from that site, and if you compare glass to magnetic in the normally used sizes, the magnetics come a very poor second in the accuracy scales (no pun intended)

The main advantage of magnetic over glass is that the magnetics work out at about 2" shorter overall when installed.


John

 

[gbritnell]

Thanks John,
Very informative.
George

 

[Jared]

I've been drooling over this mill for awhile but I can't find out if anyone with experience with it has anything to say about it. I'm real interested to see how you like it.

 

[gbritnell]

Well the mill is in place.
When my buddy and I took it out of the crate we moved what we could down to the basement. The 2 remaining pieces, the base and the column would need an appliance truck to get them down the stairs.
Saturday my sons came over and we started out by moving the aforementioned heavy pieces down to the shop. I had already measured everything and put some tape on the floor as a guide to locating the base. Everything went great. We got the base in place, mounted the column with the bolts lightly snugged until the knee went on. This way I could drop the knee to the bottom to get the column located back to it's original position. The parts drawing showed 2 dowel pins along with the 6 bolts but there were no dowels. The column had 2 tapped holes which corresponded to 2 reamed holes in the base. I used a couple of metric allen screws to get everything close.
The knee was next. I had removed the gib plate to facilitate dismantling so with a coat of way oil it was re-inserted and adjusted.
Next came the saddle followed by the table. The gibs were inserted and adjusted.
Man that thing moves smoothly!
The ram and base were located on top of the column and bolted down.
Now came the awkward piece, the spindle casting with belt housing and wiring. We put some 2x4 pieces of lumber on the table so that we could carry it in and set it on the wood. Once sitting there the knee was cranked up and the head was located onto the ram and bolted. The final big piece was the motor. It was located on the belt housing, the belt was put back on and snugged up.
From start to finish we had about 3 hours of assembly.
The boys were dismissed from their labors and I finished cleaning up the remaining spots of cosmolene, adjusting handles, gibs and what have you.
The next day I ran over to the local home store and picked up the required electrical items. An hour of stripping wires and assembling plugs and it was time for the test. E-stop button turned out, main power on and turn up the variable speed knob. Everything worked just as it was supposed to.
I trammed the head, x axis was dialed in to -0- in 8 inches but the y axis was out -.001 in the rear and +.0017 in the front. (in an 8 inch sweep) I loosened the turret and rotated it back and forth just to make sure there was nothing under it. I reindicated and got the same results. I wish it was closer out of the box but I knew how to fix it. I loosened the turret again, put a piece of wood on the table, cranked the knee up until it just lifted the turret/ram and inserted a couple of pieces of .002 shim on either side of the front fixing bolt. I lowered the knee, tightened the turret bolts and reindicated. I now have -0- in x, -0- in the back and +.0006 in the front. I can live with that.
All that's left to do is mount the vise and make some trial cuts.
I'll keep you notified on the progress.
Here's a couple of pictures. One of the machine and one with it's so far happy owner.
gbritnell

 

[kuhncw]

Nice looking machine, George. You are going to love that knee!

Regards,

Chuck

 

[Shopguy]

George
Very nice looking piece of machinery. Will await your reports on how it performs.
I hear you about moving machine tools into the basement in pieces, it's a lot of work and one has to be so careful of finished floors etc. I spent quite a while getting my machine tools into my current basement shop and putting them back together. Before that was disassembling them and crating them up at my other shop when we moved.
Ernie J

 

[kvom]

Looks good! Don't forget oil in the 1-shot ;D

 

[petertha]

...but the y axis was out -.001 in the rear and +.0017 in the front....
I loosened the turret again, put a piece of wood on the table, cranked the knee up until it just lifted the turret/ram and inserted a couple of pieces of .002 shim on either side of the front fixing bolt.

Q1) Do you mean this 'lifting' was to just temporarily unload or suspend the turret weight so you could get the shim in position... kind of like a jack?

Q2) I have an RF45 style mill & spent (too) much time trying to get the travel aligned. Actually I concluded in the end it was probably very close to begin with. I was chasing my newbie tail in circles in the act of indicating the table movement itself. I clamped a precision square on the front face of the mill so it layed accross the table Y-direction, then traversed an indicator accross that. Then I flip reversed the square & repeated (to equalize any non-90 of the square). Then I did something similar by putting the square on the back table edge. Then I moved the square from the middle of the table towards one end or another. It just seemed to be a cluster of small but variable +/- misalignments. Then a machinist friend came over & showed me what the gib adjustment screws were for (DOH!). He figured there was more float in there than what I was trying to achieve & obviously needs to be set first. How did you do your measurement to arrive at those values.?

Thats a nice mill! So is it a belt drive & VFD type variable rpm? If so, that would be a lot quiter than a gearbox.

 

[gbritnell]

Hi Peter,
By lift what I meant was once the turret was put in place it was not meant to be lifted by rather the bolts loosened so it could be rotated as needed. I used the knee to lift the turret up from the column so that I could slip the shims between the turret and the column to get the 'tram' as close to -0- as possible. To get those measurements I put a rod in the spindle that I could mount the indicator to. The indicator was slid out to sweep a 4.00 radius (the width of the table). The object was to get the axis of the spindle square with the flat surface of the table. At that time I wasn't concerned whether the x and y axis were square to each other.
The mill is extremely quiet. It comes with the VFD built into it. It converts 220 volt single phase to 220 3 phase. The rheostat adjusts the speed from 0 to 2500 rpms., with a digital readout. No need to change belts or listen to gear noise.
gbritnell

 

[gbritnell]

Hi everyone,
I thought I'd give you an update on the mill now that I have some time on it.
First of all I have the new digital readouts installed. The kit from DroPros is very good. There are a few things that could be improved but in general it's nicely put together. I had a couple of questions while installing it and they were more than helpful over the phone.
I started by installing the readout box and arm. The mount for this has set screws on either side of the main mounting bolt so that 'plumb' can be obtained. Most of the mounts are either 5 or 6 mm bolts so a couple of taps are needed.
Next came the X axis beam. Each of the beams has an aluminum mounting plate that has the aforementioned set screws for plumbing and aligning it. I couldn't mount mine on the rear so to get it to fit on the front of the mill I had to make a couple of T nuts to hold the mounting plate. With this in place the beam is mounted and then indicated true. They say you are allowed .006 in 20 inches but I have mine at about .0015.
With the beam in place you now have to locate and mount brackets to attach the reader head. I was really limited on space even to the point that I had to remove the way wiper and cut a piece out of the middle of it. Once you have everything lined up and tightened you can then remove the 4 small screws holding the reader head to the beam and remove the plastic spacer plate.

 

[petertha]

Is the digital vernier setup you have on your Z-azis a secondary thing, or you are not planning to use that 3rd channel on the DRO box?