My DRO install

[mike-sid]

Ken, and all, That's what I'm going to do. Either blocks or modify some of the brackets that came with the kit to mount the scale to the base facing away from the spindle, so to the left to keep swarf out of the scale and mount a bracket to the knee which will attach to the read head. I got my inspiration from this picture, from the DRO Pro's site.   Hope I explained it correctly. This picture shows the scale/read head mounted "front to back" with the scale opening facing back. I plan to mount mine "right to left" with the opening facing left. Make sense? sound good?

[Mayhem]

Hi Mike - the picture above is the approach that I am thinking of taking with mine. You will note that the plate at the top has the leveling set screws that I showed you in use on my lathe. I have read that the key here is the keep the read head as close to the knee that effect of any sag in the knee is minimized.

With your x-axis scale, are you going to mount anything to stop you smacking the scale into the knee?

[PixMan]

I'm not quite clear about the mounting you're suggesting Mike. The Z axis scale, or any of them for that matter, should be mounted in such a way that the flap seal for where the read head travels should be facing away from flying hot chips. As long as you have that you're OK.

And as Darren asked, do you have a stop screw or block mounted just proud of the X axis scale so it can't hit the back of the machine base?

[mike-sid]

I do plan to either put in a screw below the read head as a stop, or make a mount for the read head that incorporates a stop. Ken, my plan is to mount the seal away from the chip flow.

[mike-sid]

More progress today. I made some brackets and began to mount the backer bar for the  Z scale. I have to get a dial on it to align it before I drill the hole in the bracket to mount the backer bar. Does not look like much but this took me 1/2 a day. I'm going slow and having fun. At first I was thinking I made a mistake in buying a DRO because of the work needed to mount it. Now I'm having a great time with the install!  
 When I'm all done and the DRO is up and working I'm going to tram the head again, when I face milled the brackets I can see that the head is a hair off. I'm also going to align my vice up again, then I'm going to remake the mount for the X axis read head to include a table stop to prevent over travel and crushing the X axis scale. Thanks Darren for the heads up.

[mike-sid]

Do I have enough support for the Z axis?

[EdK]

Nice vise stop Mike.

Ed

[DaveH]

(03-14-2015, 04:47 PM)EdK Wrote: Nice vise stop Mike.  

Ed

Is that that red thing? Does look very nice - any chance of a few pics of it.

DaveH

[Mayhem]

Nice work Mike. So are you going to be mounting the scale so that when viewing it in the last picture, the slot, wipers and read head are facing us?

I thought you were going to mount it to these were pointing toward the back of the machine, as per the pic of someone else's install that you alluded to earlier. Perhaps I misunderstood.

Either way you are making progress and I look forward to seeing the finished product.

[mike-sid]

Darren. The open side is going to face left.