WTK Has anyone installed a DRO on the PM 835S?

chiroone

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I was one of the first to purchase the PM 835S. So far, it has been an excellent mill. Very rigid and able to take really deep cuts. I did purchase one of Matts generic DROs. However, upon looking at the installation, it may be a little bit above my pay grade. Has anyone installed one of these on their 835 and if so could you provide some pictures of the mounts and how you did it?
 
Hey Chiroone, I don't have a PM 835S, but I do have a Grizzly small knee mill. I installed a 4 axis DRO PROS kit on my mill and it wasn't too bad a job. It actually gets you up close and personal with your mill! The worst part was having to fabricate almost every bracket and of course making sure the holes for everything were in the correct locations. I don't know on your machine if it will be needed, but on mine I had to have a long, thick tapered aluminum base plate made up for the Z-axis scale. The column on my Grizzly is not straight but the scale and reader must be parallel with each other in travel. The people I bought my DRO from were pretty good about answering questions and supplying spare brackets if I messed one up, well more than one in the end. The one spot that really had me scratching my head was installing the scale and reader on the quill. Few people four or five years ago had ventured into this territory so I just kind of thought it through and came up with the proper bracketry. As I recall there were a few ingenious individuals back then that fabricated brackets to mount scales and readers and I received some help from them. With the DRO PROS kit I purchased it came with magnetic scales that required cutting to fit. That was actually fun and enjoyable especially when it all worked. I have to take my hat off the to DRO PROS guys as I have had absolutely no problems with my kit contrary to the mill itself. Good luck whichever way you go. I may still have some pictures of my install somewhere, or they may be on the DRO PROS gallery of installs. It wasn't quite finished when I sent them the pics they asked for but it shows the details to that point. They may help you out.
Rick H.
 
I was one of the first to purchase the PM 835S. So far, it has been an excellent mill. Very rigid and able to take really deep cuts. I did purchase one of Matts generic DROs. However, upon looking at the installation, it may be a little bit above my pay grade. Has anyone installed one of these on their 835 and if so could you provide some pictures of the mounts and how you did it?

Hey chiroone. Dude if you have PM-835S, YOU ARE A MACHINIST, and nothing is above your pay grade, How hard can be. Go for it.
 
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