[Newbie] Need Input On Next Purchase

M

mfaith

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Not sure what would be more beneficial. I have a g0759 mill and a g4003g lathe. Mill came with a dro which I love. What would be more beneficial for my next purchase. A dro for the lathe or a power feed for the mill. I'm just learning and appreciate the input.

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I would go with the power feed for the mill hands down. ;) Counting turns gets old real fast.:(
 
If you can only have one right now this can be a tough choice. The power feed is nice but not really needed. I spent a lot of years hand cranking machines. The DRO would help you improve your accuracy on the lathe and allow some cuts to be made easier. I guess it comes down to which machine you use the most and your goals in adding the hardware.
 
I'd go DRO. Power feed is nice if you need a very constant surface feed using tiny cutters, or setting up a long cut and doing something else in the meantime, like running another machine (be careful, of course) but a DRO will really open up capabilities. Bolt circles, equal offset from a known point, and pocketing becomes much easier with a DRO!
 
You have a nice set up. Hold onto your cash. Look for "opportunities" - whatever shows up.
What are you doing that you "need" either one? If you can answer that question, then buy what you know you will get quite a bit of use out of. Strictly speaking neither of those are going to increase what you are able to do.

A DRO on a mill is really, really, really nice (as Andre pointed out) - and you already have that. A DRO on a lathe? - I don't think it is a big deal. I have a DRO on my small mill (and it is awsome) - it didn't come with one, but it is pretty obviously an useful tool.

I have 2 lahtes. I have never use a lathe with a DRO, I don't think it would be nearly the game changer it is when applied to a mill.

Power feed for the mill? Again, a nice feature, but not a game changer.
 
I think a full function DRO on 2 axis of your lathe would be the way to go. The DRO on my mill also has a "Lathe setting", in theory I could buy the glass scales to mount on my lathe and swap the box between lathe and mill. If your DRO on the mill will allow this, that would be the most cost effective way to improve accuracy on your lathe.

Chipper5783 does have a point, you might want to save your cash and get some more experience using both your mill and lathe before making a decision. On my circa 1944 lathe with plenty of backlash a DRO would make using the lathe S000000 much nicer

Mike
 
The power feed on my mill was the second best upgrade I've made after the DRO.

I'm still debating how useful a DRO would be on my lathe. There are work arounds for that with simple dial gauges.
 
I would vote for power feed---really like mine.
I'm not sure how useful a DRO for the lathe would be.
 
No question in my mind. DRO on the lathe. It will spoil you, just like the DRO on the mill. DRO would get used every time you dialed off a cut on the lathe. How many cuts will you find long enough on the mill to fiddle with and find the sweet spot. By the time you do that, 90% of your cuts are finished. Unless you do a huge amount of surfacing.....
 
I gota go with the power feed on the mill. But have never had a DRO on a lathe. I would go with the power feed on the mill because it will save you $ on tooling..........cutting tools will last longer when run at the proper chip load per tooth.

Tim
 
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