ADDING A DRO TO MY 6" CRAFTSMAN LATHE

[LX Kid]

Here's a few pics of the beginings of adding a cross slide DRO to my Craftsman 6" lathe. Bought the then6" DRO Kit off eBay for $39. The DRO slide is about 12" long and I'll cut it down to about 7" as the extra length is useless for this lathe. I made a mounting bracket to epoxy on the rear of the saddle. Gonna do a lit aluminium welding to paste it together. LoL

 

[markba633csi]

I'm having a hard time visualizing how you are going to do it
How is the reader head going to be mounted?

 

[LX Kid]

I'm having a hard time visualizing how you are going to do it
How is the reader head going to be mounted?

There are threaded mounting holes on the bottom of the reader head. "But" I'm going to use double sided tape on the aluminum bottom support bar. I saw someone on YouBoob and am using his ideas with a few changes. Two screws will be holding the reader head bar to the cross slide cover and will be able to be removed by unscrewing it and the saddle mounted shelf plate. Once I weld the shelf plate to the mounting plate I'll post a pic. Here's a link to the YouBoob video. I opted not to use the magnet as he did.

 

[markba633csi]

OK, now I see

 

[LX Kid]

Today I remade the "cheezy" mounting plate, with a less cheezy plate, cause I wanted to make sure it did not impede the adjustment of the gib screws. Once it's epoxy to the saddle it's too late to correct. It's much more gooder now!

 

[LX Kid]

After looking at the mounting bracket I don't think the two lower legs are doing anything for support after epoxying to the saddle. Think I'll just cut them off. There is really not much weight of the DRO. I've not aluminum welded before so I'll do both with a 1-1/2" shelf and see which one is best. I'll do a little practice welding before doing the work. The bottom one is the one I'm hoping will work out best.

 

[LX Kid]

After fiddling around all morning trying to WELD the darn thing I succumbed to defeat. These cheapie welding sticks just didn't work. Biggest problem was that after an hour of tying to get it setup in the vice all the heat kept absorbing into the vice and the pieces never got hot enough. (735 degrees). Went to plan B if there is such a thing and used an "Industrial Welding" Glue." Gotta tell ya this is some fantastic adhesion to these parts! "Seems" to work as good as epoxy but time will tell. Just the same I'll lay some epoxy over the joined pieces. Here's a few pics for those interested.

 

[LX Kid]

If cursing was only allowed!!! My "big" idea just isn't going to work. Why is there always a fly that get's in the pudding? After all my efforts I had forgot that the cross slide brass nut has to pass thru the mount for cross slide removal. Also the dovetail of the cross slide has to be able pass by the mount. Both these would stop me from being able to remove the cross slide assembly. I think the only way will be to drill and tap the saddle so the cross slide will be able to be removed. Gonna have to sleep on this a month or two. Maybe I could make a mount using longer gibb scews for the two shown in below pic.

 

[LX Kid]

Ok so plans A & B didn't work so I'll move on to unplanned plan "C." I sat there staring at it for an hour and came up with a bridge going over the cross slide rails. I concluded that I don't need t go past the chuck center point anyway. Here is a starting mock-up, with thin tin, to figure out how all this will work. I'll need to add about 2" out the back of the bridge in order to mount the DRO slide. Now the taboo by purist. I will have to drill and tap two holes on the saddle to mount the bridge. "Oh heavens forbid!" Does anyone know if 1/8" aluminum will bend without breaking and can it be heated before to ease bending?

 

[LX Kid]

I think I'm going to admit failure until I possibly wake up in the middle of the night with an epiphany!