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Mini Lathe DRO Additions

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George_Race:
When I bought my Mini-Lathe a few years ago, I did not know the first thing about making parts on a lathe.  Sure I had shop in high school, and turned a few pieces of wood, but that was about it.

After playing around for some time, I did start to be able to successfully turn some pieces on the lathe.  A lot of folks, on the forum's I posted on, kept telling me that I needed to do a lot of reading and it would help me to understand how to use a lathe.   But, not being any kind of a machinist, all the reading in the world did not seem to make it do any better.  My problem was that I could never get anything to come out to the size that I wanted.  Mostly I always went too far and the part was undersized.
 
 I was just starting to become familiar with micrometers and calipers but not very good at using them either.  One I bought was digital, and that gave me an idea.  Why not put a digital readout on the lathe so I could see where  and how far my cutting tool was going?

Here is what I came up with and it really helped me to learn about using a lathe.
This is a link to my web site where all the pictures and details are stored.

(Be sure to click on pictures to make them bigger for a closer look, if interested)

http://www.mrrace.com/Mini_Lathe_DROs/

Now several years later, I only use the one on the tail-stock to measure depth and the one on the bed to show me where I am on the work piece.   I recently finished building a lot of parts for Weston's Magnetic Clock build that I am in the middle of.  A great deal of them were turned on the lathe.  And now, I am happy to say that I can easily get to a finished dimension without having to do it over several times.

To me, experience has been the best teacher, but I am still a very long ways from being any kind of a machinist.  But, I think my skills are getting good enough for a hobbyist which I am trying to be.

George

Davyboy:
Very nice installation on the tailstock DRO.
Thanks for sharing.

Davyboy

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