Quote:
Originally Posted by postino
I'm not convinced they'd be worth my time...If I'm milling, I only have about the width of the table in travel...And turning anything long (like a rifle barrel) I can eyeball until I get close and then run it in by hand...My cheapo machine has [variable] x & y axis feed, so I don't need the power drill feed...Although if I could run the drill slow enough, it might be good for tapering pistol barrels (running the toolpost feed to make my taper)... 
I do see why Travers DROs are ~$799; they're self contained. No problem with chip or fluid contamination.
I could easily mount the 35" DRO on the backside of the 3in1 lathe frame; the 12" crossfeed DRO would have to go on the left (gib locks are on the right)...Have to see what comes up in the future as to what benefit DROs would be to me...
Thanks for the pics, ideas, and insights!!!  |
The benefits of DROs will, of course, depend on what you use your equipment for. Milling surfaces flat, running a taper on a barrel etc is no problem (you don't even need the dials to do that), but you'll see the advantage when you start making stuff that requires several passes in different directions to get to a certain shape. The beauty of DROs is that it makes it unnecessary to count and remember how many times you crank the hand wheel, multiply that number by travel/turn and all that stuff that makes traditional machining so tedious. You just index the blank, figure out the X-Y-Z stopping points (i.e. the finished surface of the work), then you don't have to worry about if you turned the crank 8 or 9 turns. You can leave for supper and come back, and the numbers will still be there on the display, right as you left them. I'm forgetful and easily distracted, so having the DROs remembering the numbers is a great feature.
