Fitting a DRO to a BCA

[Mosey]

A jig borer in my little shop would be as appropriate as a Cruise missile. About when I have really mastered the use of the manual lathe and mill, I'll think about one again. I suspect that I'm not alone in this state of (in)competence. I'll keep working, reading you guys, and listening. That doesn't mean that I don't love all of those dials and scraped ways.
 
Mosey

[Mcgyver]

I have had a couple of queries as to how I fitted a DRO to my BCA. So I thought it would be best to add it here:

Hi Jo,

I know this is an old thread, but I went searching for it, your BCA/DRO installation, and unfortunately your photos are another victim of the photobucket nonsense

With a great big PLEASE, might it be possible to repost them here from a different server (imgur has been working well for me), or even email them?

thanks very much

Mike

[Jo]

They are still showing for me 

I have attached the installation pictures to the original posts 

Jo

[pgp001]

There are a few photo's of fitting a DRO to my Boley if you are interested. They are here:
http://lister-engine.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=121



Phil

[Mcgyver]

interesting that they are still showing for you, I get the hated photobucket icon.  Thank you!! for attaching the pics, and Phil, thanks, I'll check those out.

I'm doing a major upgrade on mine and thought I'm doing everything else, why not a DRO.  Have you both been impressed with the ones you installed?  Whats the resolution on them?

Thanks again

[pgp001]

They quote on the ebay listing:- Default resolution 5 um/0.0002” resolution.
See ebay number 321128056293 for a typical one.

I would not be without mine, it transformed the machine up a gear for me.

Phil

[Jo]

Fitting Digital Read Outs to any machine transforms their use - Lathes as well as milling machines 

I recently did a restoration on my BCA spindle bearings and was happy to find that even after 70 years all I needed to do was to take the shim out and fit one a couple of thou thinner and the spindle/bearings are spot on again and good for another 70 years

Unless you have your machine in a temperature controlled environment (or are using them on the Lathe cross slide) there is little point in going for the high spec scales.

Jo

[Jasonb]

interesting that they are still showing for you, I get the hated photobucket icon. 

Go to the bottom of the post and Jo has added the photos as attachments, the old PB icons are still there too.

[Steamer5]

Hi Jo,
 Cutting it a bit fine on updating the bearings for 70 years aren't you? 
Given your stash of castings I would be think another 30 on top of that would be more likely!

Oh & before you jump up & down....I'm sure Im not the only one who will be sticking around, well at least hoping too, to follow your adventures!

Cheers Kerrin

[Jo]

Hi Jo,
 Cutting it a bit fine on updating the bearings for 70 years aren't you? 

I hope you didn't think I needed to change them  The originals are still in there 

I thought you guys had been frightened off by JB making sniping comments on my threads  Or was it the tales of Surus   

Jo

[Mcgyver]

There are a few photo's of fitting a DRO to my Boley if you are interested. They are here:


Phil

ah, so you must be the chap who made the Herculean effort on the BCA tooling?  I remember the thread and a few of the images look the same.  Very inspirational.

I've taken a slightly different tact.  I've replaced the spindle with a T slotted block that I scraped in and then am building a new spindle for ER collets.  The idea of the T slot block is that it can become a platform for all manner of accessories.  I've adapted the UPT to it and am noodling around crazy ideas like a small slotting head, high speed spindle and maybe an EDM sinker (adding the Z power feed would be awesome for use with a boring head as well).   I also thought it could be made a hobbing machine given the head tilts.  It would be via coupling electronically the spindle and the X (ala the late John Stevenson).  I've ground the shaft for a new spindle and started working on the housing, but the internal grinder had a lot of vibration so I started building a soft bearing dynamic balancer....another rabbit hole.  One day I'll get back to model engines