Ortec Website

I've fitted a 3-axis Newall (from Chester) to my Centec 2B. Its a really impressive bit of kit - very accurate and versatile. The scales consist of precision ball bearings in a sealed carbon filament tube, which makes them impervious to dust, swarf and cutting lubricants, and virtually unbreakable. The downside being that Newall have to make them to fit your machine. I'm a self taught hobbiest and chose Newall on advice from expert friends (so I could blame them if was no good). They also talked me out of my initial thought to save money by having the 2-axis version - their advice was spot on - the 3rd axis is definitely needed. Its not the cheapest DRO around by a long shot, but its certainly as good as, if not better than, any on the market. Its use on the Centec has transformed it totally.

By the way, service from Chester and Newall was excellent.

Look very carefully at some of the specs of these cheaper units and compare to cost. At one time they were the only way out for home shop guys but with the advent of cheaper imports, better DIY kits they are now out pricing themselves.

Also I note that whereas before these cheaper units such as the Ortec and BW used to state one thou resolution they are now quoting larger resolutions of 0.002" and 0.003"

If you was to fit one of these to a lathe that would transpose to

There are a couple of kits out there that use Chinese scales to a resolution of 0.001" Ebay carries a some buy it now proper DRO's using glass scales to a resolution of 0.0002"

Most also offer additional features such as bolt circles, centre finding and multiple offsets. Sites to look at are

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

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I have an ortec dro on a myford vmc(which I wish to sell) and a newall dro on my lathe, both give excellent service. The ortec unit on my mill has a resolution of 0,02 mm i.e. 0,001"