Yep, another DRO thread. Acturally, this one may be one of those "Help me spend money" threads since ya'll are so good at that.
I have a Wells Index 747 mill that I have had for a few years. It came with a 2 axis Acu-Rite II DRO and .0005" glass scales, that is ancient, but has served its purpose until now. The X axis in the readout is failing. It is the readout, not the scales, since I have tried swapping the cables to confirm.
I have found used (for parts) Acu-Rite II DRO readouts on Ebay, and I could swap out the failing board in my readout, but they are asking $250-$400 for them. I'm not real wild about sinking that much money in such an old DRO. I can't seem to find out if another cheaper/import readout could be made to work with my existing scales.
I have a dropros system with magnetic scales that I installed on my lathe and it has been great, so I have looked into that for my mill. One problem is that I just dread the thoughts of installing new scales on the mill. I just like working on projects rather than working on my machines. (Hats off to you guys who restore old machines.) I guess I'm still kind of leaning toward a new dropros system, even though it is quite expensive, unless y'all convince me to do something else. I have wanted to add a separate scale to my quill for some time now, so if I go with a new system, I'm considering at least a 3 axis system. Question is, should I go ahead and get the 4 axis system? Do you think it would be worth the upgrade? It can also be set to sum the quill and knee scale to give a true Z position if wanted. I have always been happy with my antique DRO that just gives me a X & Y location, so I don't know if I would use all of the fancy features of a new system or not.
Thanks for any thoughts you might share.
I have a Wells Index 747 mill that I have had for a few years. It came with a 2 axis Acu-Rite II DRO and .0005" glass scales, that is ancient, but has served its purpose until now. The X axis in the readout is failing. It is the readout, not the scales, since I have tried swapping the cables to confirm.
I have found used (for parts) Acu-Rite II DRO readouts on Ebay, and I could swap out the failing board in my readout, but they are asking $250-$400 for them. I'm not real wild about sinking that much money in such an old DRO. I can't seem to find out if another cheaper/import readout could be made to work with my existing scales.
I have a dropros system with magnetic scales that I installed on my lathe and it has been great, so I have looked into that for my mill. One problem is that I just dread the thoughts of installing new scales on the mill. I just like working on projects rather than working on my machines. (Hats off to you guys who restore old machines.) I guess I'm still kind of leaning toward a new dropros system, even though it is quite expensive, unless y'all convince me to do something else. I have wanted to add a separate scale to my quill for some time now, so if I go with a new system, I'm considering at least a 3 axis system. Question is, should I go ahead and get the 4 axis system? Do you think it would be worth the upgrade? It can also be set to sum the quill and knee scale to give a true Z position if wanted. I have always been happy with my antique DRO that just gives me a X & Y location, so I don't know if I would use all of the fancy features of a new system or not.
Thanks for any thoughts you might share.
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