Compound Position DRO for Mini Lathe

[GeorgeRace]

Title should be "Carriage Position DRO for Mini Lathe"

Turing a particular length on the work piece has always been a challenge to me on my Mini Lathe. With my new addition I can now simply set my start position to zero and crank the compound down the bed for the EXACT distance that I want. All of this because I installed a Linear DRO to measure the travel distance of the compound on the bed.

All it took was a 6 inch Linear DRO and a couple of aluminum brackets. The left end mounts where the threading position indicator used to be. On the right end I simply mounted a small aluminum angle so that the bracket that came with the DRO could be securely held in place. All holes were drilled and tapped to 6-32.

See pictures below for all the details.
George

[jeffrey001]

Just be careful with hot chip flying on the scale, it will burn it.

Just protect it some way.

Jeff

[GeorgeRace]

Thanks Jeff, I will keep an eye on the hot chips. With the DRO's at the far end I hope a lot of hot chips don't get down there. Time will tell.
Thanks for the tip,
George

[prcdslnc13]

did you use digital calipers to make this or something more purpose made?

[GeorgeRace]

I got the two linear readouts from Shars, about $55 for the pair, 4 and 6 inch.
Here is a link to the page:

shars.com - Horizontal Electronic Scales

George

[lsces]

And the Shumatech DRO could be used to provide a combined total for the two scales ...
DRO-550 | shumatech.com