Author Topic: DRO for the Cowells  (Read 10179 times)

Offline zeeprogrammer

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #15 on: June 11, 2017, 12:44:30 AM »
Just read the thread...
That Colwells is a nifty machine. No doubt you will get (as you have already) much pleasure out of it.
Adding the DRO will increase that pleasure I'm sure.
As to size of display...hey...whatever works. That's always been something of a personal thing to me. i.e. size, color, working distance, etc.
Carl (aka Zee) Will sometimes respond to 'hey' but never 'hey you'.
"To work. To work."
Zee-Another Thread Trasher.

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #16 on: June 11, 2017, 01:03:41 AM »
Zee, it should make working in imperial measurements on a metric machine a bit easier for sure. Kerrin, I know what the problem is, the link I posted yesterday is for the igaging store, run by Anytime Tools. Here in the USA you can order from that site. If you go to the company site....igaging.com, then that is where the distributor list shows. Anytime Tools is just one of the USA distributors. A bit confusing I know.

Hoping to get the scale hooked up tomorrow so stay tuned.

Bill

Offline Kim

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #17 on: June 11, 2017, 04:11:11 AM »
Looks like a good start, Bill!
I think you'll like the iGaging DRO.  I've had those on my Taig Mill and they have worked great.  As you said, they aren't back lit, so I position one of my mill lights so it points at the DRO readouts. But for the price, they have worked wonderfully and done everything I need.  I am happy to have them, and I think you will be too.

One of these days, I plan to rig up a wall supply so I don't have to replace the batteries.  In the 18 months I've had them, I've only had to replace the batteries once, but they each take 2 coin cells, so replacing 3 of them takes six cells!

Kim

Offline gerritv

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #18 on: June 11, 2017, 12:07:16 PM »
Taylor Tool Works ships pretty much everywhere. Good prices as well.

Gerrit
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Offline b.lindsey

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #19 on: June 12, 2017, 01:22:52 AM »
Finished up the "Z" axis today. The indicator for the "X" axis won't be here till Tuesday or so. The "Z" axis was minimally invasive to the machine itself, only three holes in the base. Photo 1 shows the attachment of the left end of the scale. Photo 2 shows the right end with a 1/2" aluminum riser attached to the base and the scale bracket screwed into the side of the riser. In both cases there is enough adjustment to allow for lining and leveling of the scale relative to the carriage. Photo 3 shows the 5/16" square brass piece machined to fit to the back of the read head via two screws supplied with the DRO. I had hoped the undercut would fit flat against the top of the read head housing but missed this a bit, so carefully sanded down a thin washed until it just fit into the gap to provide more stability. Photo 4 shows the upper half of this same piece reaching up to the level of the underside of the carriage apron. The scale is angled by about 10 degrees matching the angle of the attachment point shown in photo 1 so the top of this piece also had to be machined by 10 degrees to be parallel to the carriage bottom. Then a 1/16" thick piece of brass strip was drilled for the existing screw on the lathe carriage on one end and for a 5-40 SHCS to screw into the top of the brass riser. Photo 5 shows a view down the length of the lathe bed after everything was installed. Everything seem to be working as expected so far, but a true test piece of machining will await the installation of the "X" axis, so a brief interlude until then.

Bill

Offline Kim

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #20 on: June 12, 2017, 02:14:31 AM »
Z-Axis looks pretty nice there Bill! Can't wait to see the rest of it :)
Kim

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #21 on: June 12, 2017, 03:15:58 AM »
Thanks Kim. I hope it will all work out well.

Bill

Offline crueby

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #22 on: June 12, 2017, 03:38:17 AM »
How do the sensor bars work, are they a toothed bar like a dial caliper, or some sort of optical or magnetic sensor? Why doesn't fine swarf mess them up?

Offline Steamer5

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #23 on: June 12, 2017, 06:26:46 AM »
Hi Gerrit,
Thanks for the info.

Bill,
  Looking good!

Cheers Kerrin
Get excited and make something!

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #24 on: June 12, 2017, 11:44:05 AM »
Chris, it is the same technology as digital calipers which do not have a geared rack to drive a pinion as is the case on analog calipers. I assume it is optical or magnetic but honestly don't know which, only that everything is pretty well sealed though these are not claimed to be coolant proof. If I have any issues with swarf, I have already figured a way to add a flexible shield covering the scale and read head without interfering with the read head's movement. I am not expecting it to be a problem though.

Bill

Offline vcutajar

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #25 on: June 12, 2017, 05:44:02 PM »
I may be wrong, but if my memory serves me right, they are capacitive.

Vince

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #26 on: June 12, 2017, 05:49:50 PM »
Could well  be Vince, and that makes more sense too!  All I know is that it works. I leave the technology to the experts :)

Bill

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #27 on: June 14, 2017, 07:10:58 PM »
The digital indicator with the remote read head arrived yesterday, though I didn't even have a chance to look it over until today. Opening the box revealed it as shown in the attached photo. At first glance I was concerned that the indicator body was plastic, but on closer examination it is all metal. It seems to be very smooth in operation and otherwise just as advertised. I hope this evening to have a chance to see how far back it will need to be behind the lathe and with the cross slide fully cranked in. I may not get to do much as to mounting it until the weekend, but if all goes well the little Cowells will now be complete with DRO!!!

Bill

Offline b.lindsey

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #28 on: June 17, 2017, 08:31:43 PM »
Got a start on the "X" axis readout this morning. The remote readout that came with the indicator did not have the thumb screw supplied with it as the DRO's do so in order to stack the readouts I had to make on. The thread is 1/4-20 so it was a simple task to do that. The result is that the readouts are now stacked one on top of the other as shown in photo 1.

Next was to come up with a way to mount the indicator body to the carriage in a way that the tip of it will engage the back side of the cross slide as it moves in the +/- X direction. As I had noted previously I think, there is an existing 5mm threaded hole on the headstock side of the carriage which will be used for attachment.  Rather than using a square piece, I took a length of .375" drill rod and flatted the bottom over the section that will rest against the carriage (photo 2), then drill a clearance hole for a 5mm SHCS. Note that this hole is slightly offset so as to match the tapped hole in the carriage and still provide some clearance between the rod and the cross-slide. The top side was spot faced to give a flat for the SHCS to bear against (photo 3).  The rod is shown installed in photo 4, and the approximate position of the indicator shown in photo 5.

Now I need to make a coupling piece  with two 3/8" hole in it, one hole to slip over the rod and the other to slip over the 3/8" collar on the indicator. This will allow the indicator to be moved fore and aft on the drill rod as needed for more major changes in the set up of the cross-slide/ I suspect that under normal usage this will not require much if any adjustment once set up.

Bill

Offline 90LX_Notch

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Re: DRO for the Cowells
« Reply #29 on: June 17, 2017, 08:51:24 PM »
I'm green with envy Bill.  Very nice.


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