$16 DRO
Looked at the DRO from Little Machine Shop, and although it is very reasonable, I couldn’t see spending that much just to keep track of where I am. I attached a $16 dial guage to some stainless stock I had lying around instead. The X and Y axes also have the same setup on magnetic bases, I just attach them to the machine when I need to. But mostly, the hand dials to move the table on X and Y have the dials metered out in .001″ increments, so it’s not hard to keep track of your movements that way. I measured the table indicated movement with dial gauges against the hand dial readouts and they were very accurate. The Z axis was giving me trouble because each graduation on the hand dial is .0005″, so when you dial up .010″ of depth, you are actually getting half that. So I have this Z axis “DRO” magnetically clamped to my machine. Works great. 2nd pic is my vice. Now this is a REAL vice. 6″ Kurt. Nearly as big as my machine. The machine may bog down and die, but the vice is bulletproof.
walt
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About $1000 including the Mill (not counting a surplus computer)
Worked out around the same price as a true 3 axis DRO and it gives me equivalent to that plus 3 axis power feed even if I don’t use the CNC functions.
I can’t have the swivel base on my vice because then I wouldn’t be able to lift the thing up or move it, too heavy.
How much was the total cost to run CNC?
End mills arent a problem with mine, but drilling sometimes takes some work.
Sucks when I carefully edge find a peice of work and then realise I have to mount the work differently and start over because I dont have clearance.
I had that happen last night – 7×3″ piece needed 4 holes drilling. I edge found and then set the CNC’s “DRO’s” only to realise I didnt have enough travel with that size of work the way I had it mounted to jog the table over to one side to be able to change over to a drill chuck to do the initial center drilling (which was to be followed by a through hole, a clearance hole and then a countersink)
I just shifted the piece over in my vice a bit – but still annoying
I might finally do what I’ve been told to do several times and remove the swivel base from my vice.
Drilling on it might be a challenge 😛
That’s the major problem I’ve had with mine. Even with my vice taken down two stages I’ve still had to cut down two bits to get clearance for them (11mm and 13mm). One would think there’d be a market for short bits, just for small mills.
That’s why I bought a set of R8 collets. I have a complete set of mill holders, but they stick way out. The pic doesn’t show it, but there’s actually a collet in the machine right now, in this pic. It’s only a 3/8″, I was using the collet to hold another dial gauge and indicating off the vice jaw (stationary jaw) to align the jaw perfectly so when the way is moved on the X axis, the indicator says the Y movement is within about .001″ on the jaw. Turns out the jaw is not perfectly flat. Most of it is within .0005, but near one end, it tapers off slightly. I bought it used, so this is to be expected (can’t afford one of these new), apes always hold things on the end, let it hang, and then pound on it or something and this wears the ends of the jaws. But the jaws are removable, so I’ll have to send them out to have then reground, I don’t have access to a surface grinder.
walt
That is a great vise. By the time you mount an end mill and a chunk of aluminum your clearance is going to be very close.
Drilling on it might be a challenge 😛
Bloody hell Walt, if you mount a piece of work big enough to fully utilise that vise the mill will fold like a pretzel. 😆
Nice DRO brainwave. 😀
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I’m using mostly screw machine drill bits now days for their shorter length. 😀
mike