Thread: DRO options - help deciding on buying a chinese DRO

Hi Guys

I have been looking at the many DRO options available from usual sites such as Ali Express and Ebay out of china. Searching old threads I can see various references to purchasing and installing DRO's but not so much what people looked for in terms of sorting which one to buy. There are various screen and reader options. My thoughts are:

Screen - dont need full LCD view (just coordinates would be enough) but if same price why not?
Scales - check dimensions and a slimmer style would be better for my setup
Scales - 5um would be sufficient - 1um an option
Scales - glass is preference in the budget/accuracy stakes
Plug - must come with an AU compliant plug
Brand - does it matter out of china?
Hall sesnor - nice to have not essential.
Shipping - cost and timliness

I am wondering if anyone else could highlight some of the considerations they made when purchasing? Above options look like they are around $350 delivered so seems very reasonable to me.


Thanks
Ian

Are you looking for a lathe or a mill?

Michael

A local company I saw recently in an online ad:

2481B5DA-1998-40E9-ACE4-E097EB7F1B9A.jpg

https://extramachinery.com/products/...ear-scales-kit

$460 for SINO scales and a Ditron LCD display box with RPM.
Has a smallish display box without all the extra mill functions that necessitate 20 extra buttons.
Would suit a smaller lathe or mill?

Originally Posted by Michael G

Are you looking for a lathe or a mill?

Michael

Eventually one of each. 2axis for the lathe and 3 axis for my little mill.

Originally Posted by nigelpearson

A local company I saw recently in an online ad:

2481B5DA-1998-40E9-ACE4-E097EB7F1B9A.jpg

https://extramachinery.com/products/...ear-scales-kit

$460 for SINO scales and a Ditron LCD display box with RPM.
Has a smallish display box without all the extra mill functions that necessitate 20 extra buttons.
Would suit a smaller lathe or mill?

Thanks for the link. A local supplier is always preferable in my book but seems less features for a fair bit more money. I’ve spent a lot on my hobbies lately so price definitely a consideration in this purchase.

Not a direct help but I got an email tonight stating Ausee Machines & Tools are doing 10% off for a week or so. Not sure what DRO bits they sell.

Have you considered using one of those Bluetooth boxes that connect the scale to an Android device that runs a DRO app? Just a thought for the mix.

https://www.touchdro.com/resources/i...-touchdro.html

Hi Ian,

Not a consideration from having bought one, but from use. I think I would grow exceedingly frustrated with some of the small, low contrast displays of some products suggested in this thread.

The ones I've used have large, bright segmented displays, making it easy to read, even when standing at the other end of the lathe or mill.

Lance

I fitted a 3 axis DRO to the mill around 5 yrs ago and a 2 axis DRO to the lathe about 1.5yrs ago and both are almost the same
LED displays - not an issue for me
Glass scales
5um - if I can work to plus/minus 10 or 15um I'm very happy, in the old system 30um is close enough to 1 thou.
IEC power socket so type of plug fitted was not important.
No hall sensor - lathe and mill both have VFD's
Mill DRO is HXX and lathe DRO is YH YiHao GD 2 axis
Both came from Aliexpress no issues with delivery - it seems that the price difference between Ebay and Aliexpress appears to be shrinking.
Both user manuals are translated from chinese to english and a so a bit hard to follow but there are plenty of youtube how-to videos you can check out.


If it came to a choice between extra functions and RPM then I would choose extra functions, the circle hole function is great, no need to lug out the rotary table, the linear hole function is also good - I drilled the turret board holes for all of the guitar amps I've made.




If fitting a DRO to your lathe then you may want to investigate if the DRO can be setup for radius/diameter on the Y axis - in radius mode the y axis readout shows the amount being taken off the radius which is 1/2 of the diameter - in diameter mode the actual diameter of the work piece is shown on the Y axis so you turn down to the correct diameter shown on the y axis, I believe some like to work this way. I eventually worked out how to set mine up for diameter as it seemed like a good idea but it didn't gel with me and I went back to what I call normal y axis display or radius.


I now use the calculator function - press calc - enter final diameter - subtract current measured diameter - transfer result to the y axis display, this will be a negative number(final diam is smaller than current diam) - exit calculator function - press 1/2 key and y axis - the y axis now shows the amount that needs to be taken off the radius - continue turning until y axis display shows zero. The calculator function is a bit quirky in that leading zero's must be entered so if entering .375 it must be entered as 0.375


The DRO on the mill has been great and well worth it - on the lathe ? it is ok and useful but I only fitted it as my wife kept asking what I wanted for my birthday - she eventually said if you don't tell me, I'll get something useless that you don't want, so a DRO it was, if it wasn't for that I probably would still not have one on the lathe.

Some great responses there, thanks guys. I'll keep saving a few pennies and hope to order something from AliExpress or Ebay in a month or so.

Hi Guys,

Dave said it all ! I ended up with a DRO for the same reason.

About the only thing that I would add is that fitting my DRO gave me an opportunity to do remedial and maintenance work on the mill that I had been putting of for some time. The net result is I now have a mill that performs better than it ever did !

We have a couple of SINO units we bought from general tools at work, they have held up well in a industrial environment.

Over the last couple of years I have bought two DROs from Aliex. Both with the big display a shown in the link.
I figured I'm not getting any younger so the big display would be good. Very easy to read and when you get close to zero the numerals change from black to red.

Big display


Peter