Which DRO

The Newel is in a different league than the Ortec or B & W. The problem I see is cost versus features The Newall is more money but also has more features. Biggest difference is actual repeatability. Can't comment on the Ortec but B&W have now taken the accuracy and repeatability details off their site. When I bought mine they quoted plus or minus 0.001" A while ago they changed their web site to plus or minus 0.002" before removing it. Can you live with 4 thou ? It all depends on what you do. For a lathe because of the double cutting on the diameter that 4 thou can be as great as 8 thou.

I feel that at one time these hobby DRO's were good value for money giving a reasonable quality unit for less than the plus £1000.00 industrial units. However things change and we are now seeing class industrial units with tenths resolution, bolt circles, tool offsets etc coming down in price whereas the hobby ones have increased with no extra's

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

You might want to look at professional DROs too. 17 years ago I bought a Heidenhain 2 axis DRO for my mill. I went though an agent in Bournemouth who sold me a service exchange display unit for a model that was superseded and some new scales. It has been perfect in all that time and I would not be without it.

No commercical connection etc etc but The contect was Gary Blanch at Engineering Equipment Centre

good luck

Bob

I'm just about to fit one of this type:

Regards

Charles

A 2 axis B&W system has been on my mill for some 4 years. It was easy to fit and performs well. The readout is very clear. At the time of buying the system there was less choice than now - a different system might be chosen today.

As to accuracy, the B&W readout is occasionally checked against leadscrew reading and corresponds well.

One downside of the B&W system: switch the display off and the zero setting is lost. I simply leave the unit switched on, but the odd power supply glitch causes the setting to be lost.

Regards Doug Ball

I have the two axis Ortec fitted to my mill. Been on there for some years now. Its accuracy is claimed as + or -0.001" which is the resolution of the readout. I find it repeatable and generally very good. However in my experience the read head does need to be accurately aligned on assembly otherwise it seems to get "sticky" i.e. not truly repeatable. I find the display size very acceptable to view. It will operate in Imperial or metric at the push of a button so measurement translation is easy. When powered on it sets to zero.

Regards

Alan Marshall

Just had a superb Mituoyo unit fitted to our Colchester lathe.

Price brand new and fitted £500

I would def go for a Newal DRO, .... no glass scake to get dirty and a great read out with loads of funtionality, much better than that of the hideandseek type. great value for money, (in an engineering workshop if nothing else)

HTH

Tim

I endorse that comment - got Newals on my Colchester Master and the J&S

Andrew Mawson

I've been tempted by a home-build readout that uses chinese scales or quadrature encoders. Details on

Wilfrid Underwood

Charles Ping is in the process of building one and I have cheated and bought a ready made unit off the UK agent, Lester Caine.

I only got it yesterday so I haven't got it mounted up yet. They do look good though. You can get then in three forms, the original with covers lathe and mill and then a dedicated lathe or mill unit. The only difference is what software they are loaded with but you can download whatever version you want for free.

Mill has centre finding option, bolt hole centres and tool off sets. Lathe has angular setting if you have the 3rd axis on the top slide and better tool offsets.

I have had mine altered so that the one scale on the cross slide reads both lower DRO's but each is programmable independently. This way I can run front and rear tools at the same time without having to call up separate offsets.

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

What Colchester lathe and what Mituoyo model did you get and where from. Intreasted in one for my Colchester 2000.

Thanks

Stephen.

On Thu, 27 May 2004 08:48:22 +0100, John Stevenson <

My one's not fitted yet - a job for nice bank holiday weekend! Confession time is that I did build it and lets's say I had "problems" ....but Lester Caine sorted them out and it's ok now! The ability to have the UK agent nail any such problems appealed to me.

As John says, the spec is good. The limitation is probably the chinese scales which need good protection from the detritus of machining. You can get a dongle that allows normal quadrature scales to work with them but buying the scales from Newall or whoever isn't cheap.

There's also a fairly buoyant yahoo group supporting users at:

Have you got contact details for Lester Caine, please?

Wilfrid

Email: snipped-for-privacy@lsces.co.uk

His web page with pricing and ordering for the DRO350 in the UK is here:

Charles

Have you got contact details for Lester Caine, please

Wilfrid

Charles already posted it, perhaps your ISP didn't get it. Re posted and emailed.

His web page with pricing and ordering for the DRO350 in the UK is here:

Charles

-- Regards,

John Stevenson Nottingham, England.

On Sat, 29 May 2004 17:44:26 +0100, John Stevenson

It appears that Google Groups has fallen over (on the 27th) and Wilfrids email address bounces. Anyone got a valid email address for him so that I can mail the info over?

Charles

I've got the details, thanks. I'm posting via Google direct, and it takes an age for posts to appear. I thought one had got lost.

The email address shown is completely false, as a spam avoidance.

If anyone needs me (rather unlikely) I'm on wilfrid at ewe3 dot co dot uk

Many thanks for the info. I'd be interested to hear how the unit performs, when you've got it fully running.

Wilfrid