It is high time a DRO was fitted to my mill.Having read Barry Harrison's tale of two read-outs in MEW a couple of years ago, the Newall system is not unknown to me. However before deciding on that path, I would be interested to hear reports from anyone using Ortec or B&W systems.
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
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 I went though an agent in Bournemouth who sold me a service exchange display unit for a model that was superseded and some new scales.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
It appears to have the features of the professional models at a smaller price, "home sized" price. By using chinese digital scales there's a downside that the scales aren't as robust as professional ones but that was a compromise that I was happy to live with in a home workshop. However I haven't bought the long scale until I've got it up and running so if someone has a redundant second hand 24 inch encoder scale lying around I'll be really happy to hear from them! If you're interested hopefully I'll be able to give a better run down after the weekend.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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:
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?
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