04-04-2016, 03:57 PM
Finally finished up installing the DRO on my lathe. As usual it was another project that didn't go exactly as planned but I survived it anyway. It began with the arrival of the package being covered in shoe prints from end to end, as if someone had been using it for a diving board at their pool. The shipping box contained all of the component parts in their own separate boxes, that were thrown loosely into the larger shipping box. Everything looked like it was OK however.
I started by locating the 5 holes needed in the back of the lathe bed to mount the backing spar that holds the Z axis scale. Drilled and tapped the first hole at the head stock end of the bed and attached the spar with a bolt. Leveled the back end of the spar (parallel to the saddle travel) and drilled and tapped the second hole at the tail stock end. Checking the full length of the spar showed that it was bowed down in the center slightly. (Remember those foot prints on the box?)
I used a couple of machinist jacks in the center of the spar to get it straight again and drilled and tapped the final 3 holes in the middle. Since the side of bed casting isn't a machined surface I need to use the supplied leveling blocks behind the spar to make sure it was sitting plumb and parallel to the ways. I was slipping the leveling blocks onto each bolt when I discovered I only had 4 of them in the box - not 5. It's always something...
I searched every box multiple times and didn't find one. I started looking at the paperwork that shows all the hardware that is supposed to be supplied and see FOUR blocks listed. What the ...?
Digging further into the paperwork, I started looking at part numbers and discovered ENCO sent me the wrong backing spar! Instead of sending me the proper 36" spar (that has 4 holes in it) they sent me a 42" spar (with 5 holes in it) and then hack-sawed the ends off of it to make it 36" long!
Seeing as I have already drilled and tapped the 5 holes in my lathe, I thought OK no big deal - I'll just call ENCO and have them send me one more leveling block. WRONG!
Once again the only thing the MORONS at ENCO were willing to do, was to let me return the entire DRO package for a refund. They wouldn't pull a leveling block out of another box to send to me. They wouldn't contact the manufacturer and have them send me another block either. "You will have to do that yourself." I said that's funny because you certainly didn't have any problem pulling the wrong spar from another box and sawing it off before sending it to me!!!
So "I" ended up calling Acu-rite myself and spoke to "Kevin" in the tech dept and explained my situation. He says... "Well, you'll have to contact Enco and...."
I stopped him and told him I just got off of the phone with Enco, and what they wanted me to do. "Oh, HELL NO!" he says.
Another leveling block arrived 2 days later - no charge. 
I got everything back together and was setting up the display. As I was trying it out I thought something isn't right with the X axis reading. The scales have the same resolution as the scales on my mill (.0002") and the mill has always been spot on. The Z scale on the lathe seemed to be working just fine, but I couldn't get a .0002 reading on the cross slide (X scale). It acted like it was skipping counts and would only display .0004" changes.
So I was thinking great, now I've got a bad scale too. That was late last night and I decide to sleep on it. This morning I tried going through the troubleshooting section in the manual, and it basically says if you have a bad scale it has to be replaced - they don't "repair" scales. And then I had a thought. I went back to the lathe and toggled the X display from "diameter" to "radius" and BINGO! There is nothing in the manual about this, and I've never used a lathe DRO before but it kind of made sense that the resolution might double along with the "diameter" display choice. So I'm assuming all is good.
I started by locating the 5 holes needed in the back of the lathe bed to mount the backing spar that holds the Z axis scale. Drilled and tapped the first hole at the head stock end of the bed and attached the spar with a bolt. Leveled the back end of the spar (parallel to the saddle travel) and drilled and tapped the second hole at the tail stock end. Checking the full length of the spar showed that it was bowed down in the center slightly. (Remember those foot prints on the box?)
I used a couple of machinist jacks in the center of the spar to get it straight again and drilled and tapped the final 3 holes in the middle. Since the side of bed casting isn't a machined surface I need to use the supplied leveling blocks behind the spar to make sure it was sitting plumb and parallel to the ways. I was slipping the leveling blocks onto each bolt when I discovered I only had 4 of them in the box - not 5. It's always something...
I searched every box multiple times and didn't find one. I started looking at the paperwork that shows all the hardware that is supposed to be supplied and see FOUR blocks listed. What the ...?
Digging further into the paperwork, I started looking at part numbers and discovered ENCO sent me the wrong backing spar! Instead of sending me the proper 36" spar (that has 4 holes in it) they sent me a 42" spar (with 5 holes in it) and then hack-sawed the ends off of it to make it 36" long!
Seeing as I have already drilled and tapped the 5 holes in my lathe, I thought OK no big deal - I'll just call ENCO and have them send me one more leveling block. WRONG!
Once again the only thing the MORONS at ENCO were willing to do, was to let me return the entire DRO package for a refund. They wouldn't pull a leveling block out of another box to send to me. They wouldn't contact the manufacturer and have them send me another block either. "You will have to do that yourself." I said that's funny because you certainly didn't have any problem pulling the wrong spar from another box and sawing it off before sending it to me!!!
So "I" ended up calling Acu-rite myself and spoke to "Kevin" in the tech dept and explained my situation. He says... "Well, you'll have to contact Enco and...."
I stopped him and told him I just got off of the phone with Enco, and what they wanted me to do. "Oh, HELL NO!" he says.
Another leveling block arrived 2 days later - no charge. I got everything back together and was setting up the display. As I was trying it out I thought something isn't right with the X axis reading. The scales have the same resolution as the scales on my mill (.0002") and the mill has always been spot on. The Z scale on the lathe seemed to be working just fine, but I couldn't get a .0002 reading on the cross slide (X scale). It acted like it was skipping counts and would only display .0004" changes.
So I was thinking great, now I've got a bad scale too. That was late last night and I decide to sleep on it. This morning I tried going through the troubleshooting section in the manual, and it basically says if you have a bad scale it has to be replaced - they don't "repair" scales. And then I had a thought. I went back to the lathe and toggled the X display from "diameter" to "radius" and BINGO! There is nothing in the manual about this, and I've never used a lathe DRO before but it kind of made sense that the resolution might double along with the "diameter" display choice. So I'm assuming all is good.
Willie