PM728VT quill DRO

[maticulus]

I had my date with this particular issue a little over a month ago after watching the Blondie Hacks video and thinking it wasn't an issue I was having, until I made some tramming feet for my vice and noticed the quill was registering a different value than what it was set at after making passes, which eventually resulted in inaccuracies and scrapping of the plan. I followed the link she made to the replacement scale, but found a 5um slim, linear glass scale for a few dollars more at $47 and free shipping and took that route instead and made a replacement attachment for the flexible sheet metal bracket it had originally. I had previously purchased a 5 axis DRO from aliexpress at a great price so connectivity was in place already. Now I have a reading on the main DRO for both the quill and the head stock. Both quill scales are on the mark, returning to 0 at rest.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

I disassembled it, found that attachments to the head and the quill were out of plane, bending the lower end of the slide back toward the quill. A thick shim and a bit of bending on the mount realigned it.

Also found that the slide has adjustment for drag (much like on a dial indicator). These were very loose, allowing lateral motion. Tightened these.

Unfortunately, this didn't help much. Still off by .003 when moving the quill up by 0.010 and back to zero.

I'm going your route with after-market unit.

On the small I-gage units I found they would give erroneous readings if the scale wasn't mounted parallel to the travel of the reader.

 

[JimFromAZ]

I had my date with this particular issue a little over a month ago after watching the Blondie Hacks video and thinking it wasn't an issue I was having, until I made some tramming feet for my vice and noticed the quill was registering a different value than what it was set at after making passes, which eventually resulted in inaccuracies and scrapping of the plan. I followed the link she made to the replacement scale, but found a 5um slim, linear glass scale for a few dollars more at $47 and free shipping and took that route instead and made a replacement attachment for the flexible sheet metal bracket it had originally. I had previously purchased a 5 axis DRO from aliexpress at a great price so connectivity was in place already. Now I have a reading on the main DRO for both the quill and the head stock. Both quill scales are on the mark, returning to 0 at rest.
View attachment 466422

Maticulus, do you happen to have the make and model number of that $47 DRO you purchased on aliexpress? Thanks!

 

[maticulus]

Maticulus, do you happen to have the make and model number of that $47 DRO you purchased on aliexpress? Thanks!

Yes, unfortunately in addition to a little bump in price it apparently is no longer available however, there should be other substitutes. Search at the bottom of the listing as aliexpress is pretty good about bringing up a long list of associated and similar items. The link to what I purchased is below. Just be careful to match, or beat the dimensions of the one I purchased, 18x20 mm square, 70mm range.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805686285370.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.30.3ae81802BCrwH5&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

 

[kmanuele]

I had my date with this particular issue a little over a month ago after watching the Blondie Hacks video and thinking it wasn't an issue I was having, until I made some tramming feet for my vice and noticed the quill was registering a different value than what it was set at after making passes, which eventually resulted in inaccuracies and scrapping of the plan. I followed the link she made to the replacement scale, but found a 5um slim, linear glass scale for a few dollars more at $47 and free shipping and took that route instead and made a replacement attachment for the flexible sheet metal bracket it had originally. I had previously purchased a 5 axis DRO from aliexpress at a great price so connectivity was in place already. Now I have a reading on the main DRO for both the quill and the head stock. Both quill scales are on the mark, returning to 0 at rest.
View attachment 466422

Maticulus;

Great idea!

I had a pipe dream a while ago of taking the quill DRO and head DRO outputs and summing them in an Arduino so the total travel was displayed, regardless of which was moved. Probably never get around to that but:

I found the link, and the 5th channel is apparently 'V'? Are you happy with DRO?

Any chance that 5-axis DRO has the ability to do some math like that? Say, sum Z and U, display on V?

thx

K

 

[maticulus]

Maticulus;

Great idea!

I had a pipe dream a while ago of taking the quill DRO and head DRO outputs and summing them in an Arduino so the total travel was displayed, regardless of which was moved. Probably never get around to that but:

I found the link, and the 5th channel is apparently 'V'? Are you happy with DRO?

Any chance that 5-axis DRO has the ability to do some math like that? Say, sum Z and U, display on V?

thx

K

I have a 5 axis on both the mill and the 1228 lathe and they both work great, although I've been so busy since purchasing them (lathe earlier this year) I haven't had enough time to really get into the capabilities but, they appear to be able to at a glance. The lathe DRO is a later unit and has a similar but updated operating system and shows saddle travel speed. The 5th axis on it is for rpm, I use the 4th for the angle sensor installed on the post swivel. They are both Ditron D80s and should have a searchable manual to look into further if interested.

According the the third post in this thread it does. I quoted the post in case the link is not allowed.

"I have (2) Ditron D80s on both my mill and lathe. I chose the D80 because it allows axis summing - so I could (have not bothered to learn the feature yet) have the resultant motion of the quill and the knee as one output and I wanted the LCD display - wonderful for bolt circles and the like. I bought my systems from Reeson (if you buy 80+ units Ditron is willing to badge it to your name)."

Digital Readout DITRON D80

I just bought and mounted this DRO on my Bridgeport . All is almost fine... My X coordinate is reversed. The right hand side is reading -X and the left hand side is reading +X. Does anyone know how to flip the reference in the settings? thanks any help will be appreciated. I have considered...

www.practicalmachinist.com

 

[kmanuele]

I have a 5 axis on both the mill and the 1228 lathe and they both work great, although I've been so busy since purchasing them (lathe earlier this year) I haven't had enough time to really get into the capabilities but, they appear to be able to at a glance. The lathe DRO is a later unit and has a similar but updated operating system and shows saddle travel speed. The 5th axis on it is for rpm, I use the 4th for the angle sensor installed on the post swivel. They are both Ditron D80s and should have a searchable manual to look into further if interested.

According the the third post in this thread it does. I quoted the post in case the link is not allowed.

"I have (2) Ditron D80s on both my mill and lathe. I chose the D80 because it allows axis summing - so I could (have not bothered to learn the feature yet) have the resultant motion of the quill and the knee as one output and I wanted the LCD display - wonderful for bolt circles and the like. I bought my systems from Reeson (if you buy 80+ units Ditron is willing to badge it to your name)."

Digital Readout DITRON D80

I just bought and mounted this DRO on my Bridgeport . All is almost fine... My X coordinate is reversed. The right hand side is reading -X and the left hand side is reading +X. Does anyone know how to flip the reference in the settings? thanks any help will be appreciated. I have considered...

www.practicalmachinist.com

ok. now you've got me intrigued. I have the PM DRO setup on my 728. Might do some research to see if the I can just swap out DROs.