I finally decided to install a set of DROs on my Three-in-One Smithy I-Max 1340, and I chose the inexpensive Igaging EZ-View set off eBay. I can't hardly go wrong for $150 including tax and shipping. The set came with a 6", 12" and 36" DRO.
The simplest one to start with was the mill quill, as I'd previously mounted the Smithy version (which came with the pile of goodies I'd gotten with the lathe) and so the mounting brackets could be used with no modifications. It was just a matter of unscrewing the Smithy scale and replacing it with the Igaging unit.
I had to drill and tap four holes in the mill head to mount the DRO bracket.
The brown metal bracket also mounted to the column is a small LED work light. I should probably paint the bracket...
The next most difficult DRO to install was on the cross slide. I drilled and tapped two holes for the scale end brackets, and one hole for the sensor bracket.
Two down, one to go.
It really wasn't much more difficult to mount the third DRO, other than to rig up bracketry for the sensor to move with the carriage.
Below is a better shot of the carriage brackets. I was able to use an existing threaded hole in the carriage to fasten the upper bracket. The metric screw is one I found in a big ol' bin of screws that was in my workbench that came from Dad, who had it way back when I was a teenager. I remember that screw came from a motorcycle I had in the 80s that I'd replaced all the side cover Phillips-head screws with allen-head screws (some of you may remember that at the time you could buy a "kit" to do this, as the Phillips head screws were notorious to round-out trying to get them out). The reason I know this one particular screw came from the motorcycle is that there are about 10 to 12 screws of the same metric thread pitch and varying lengths in the screw bin, and several have rounded-out Phillips heads. Yeah, I never throw anything away.
Here's the one end of the scale under the tailstock.
And then there were three (see below). Each of these DROs takes two CR2032 3v batteries (stacked, so 6 volts) but they also have a DC input jack that accepts a 3.5mm OD x 1.35mm ID male plug (center terminal hot). Igaging sells a transformer (35-860-AC) that supplies 0.3 amps, so I dug around in my box of transformers and found a wall wart that produces 1.5 amps at 5 volts so I could power all three DROs from one transformer. I then bought three of the proper size 3.5mm male plugs and wired them in to the wall wart power supply. This way I don't need to worry about batteries.
These DROs have six buttons:
MM/IN/F - Switch between Metric/Imperial/Fraction
SET - Cycles between 32nds, 64ths and 128ths (works with fractions only)
On/Off
INC - Increment
Preset - To preset a value for later recall
Zero - Resets DRO to either zero or whatever number is in "Preset"
The instructions are a bit lacking, so I thought I'd expound on a few of the buttons' uses.
INC - Press once to set current location to zero. This saves the previously-zeroed reading in memory. Press a second time to recall the previous location reading. For example, zero the DRO then move the carriage/cross slide/quill some distance. Press INC to re-zero the DRO while remembering the previous zero position. Press INC once more to revert to the previous zero position.
SET - This button cycles between 32nds, 64ths and 128ths, and only works when the DRO is set to Fractions.
Preset - This is used to preset a number into memory, which is then recalled whenever the ZERO button is pressed. Once a "preset" number is programmed in, pressing the ZERO button will recall that number. In order to actually "zero" the DRO to zero again, the "preset" number will need to be changed back to zero.
The final step in this project was to tidy up all the cabling. The two sensor cables for the carriage and cross slide were just barely long enough to reach the mounting point of the displays when the carriage was moved to the far right. Any shorter cables and I would have had to be careful when moving the carriage to the right. As it is, the carriage will hit the tailstock before doing any damage to the cables.
I purchased some black spiral cable wrap to keep the cables together, and some 3/8" mounting clips to hold things in position.
The cross slide locking bolt that I'd previously made was pretty much inaccessible after this job was done, since the sensor was right on top of it, so I made a longer one. I added a brass end plug just for fun. The original lock that Smithy used was just a large set screw that used a hex wrench to tighten it. I didn't like that method so I made my own.
My daughter was throwing out a bathroom shelf so I repurposed it as my lathe tool/handle shelf. The old shelf was sorely lacking in space and rigidity. I added some 3/16" plywood to the new shelf.
Update on the tool shelf - after a few days of looking at the tools/handles laying in a pile, I drilled some holes, and now there's room for some files.
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