Digital Readout! DRO! How to buy, install, and use 'em!

This episode on Blondihacks, I'm talking all about the digital readout on your machine tools! Exclusive videos, drawings, models & plans available on Patreon!

Here are links for many of the tools that you see me using:
(I earn small commissions on these links)

Want more content like this? Try these places:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

[omniryx]

No incomplete sentences, no dumbed down explanations, no Bubba-speak, no gratuitous attempts at humor. Quinn, you are a national treasure!

[henryD]

FINALLY! I've watched dozens of dozens of YouTube videos that use this equipment. But nobody has ever explained what DRO is and how it works.
THANK YOU!

[KingJellyfishII]

I don't know why I watched this, as I have no mill or lathe and no plans to get one any time soon, but it's still entertaining!

[Andy-zsjb]

Before watching your video I was asking myself do I really need a DRO, after watching, I realized I NEED a DRO. I had no idea that they had all of those functions (bolt patterns, center finders, etc.) I am brand new to milling machines (been using a drill press as a mill for a few years) and I just purchased a mill. Thanks for the awesome video, you earned yourself a subscriber :)

[paulharland]

As a Newbie to milling, this channel is a godsend!
Superb content 👌 👏.
All the best from 🇬🇧

[mrhelichopper]

I just want to say thank you, not only for this video, which is excellent but for your entire library of work. Your videos are absolutely brilliant, informative, humorous and always containing the perfect level of detail for a ken hobbyist but most of all your personal enthusiasm shines through. Thanks so very much Quinn . I just learnt more about my DRO than I have in the past 5 years :-)

[donaldsutherland]

Installed my DROs this last weekend, on an old Rockwell mill. And I have to admit that I did so with more confidence only after watching your video. You are an excellent teacher! Thank you!

[davesullivan]

Your instructions are so much easier to understand than the CD that came with my DRO

[dpfreedman]

Let me join the chorus: I don't own a mill or a lathe and never will yet I'm totally addicted to Quinn's YT videos. What a phenomenal instructor and that wonderfully dry sense of humor keeps me coming back for more. Absolutely brilliant.

[billguernsey]

3 years since posting and this is still helping people like me! Thanks.

[physicsguybrian]

This is BY FAR the best video on this subject ever!!! Thank you!!!

[StevensonDentalSolutions]

You are an excellent teacher! Thank you.

[hf-lzqw]

Quinn, PLEASE keep doing these videos, they are more helpful than you will ever know. I just got a new to me Bridgeport with a Mitutoyo DRO, and I was able to be in the ball park for usage, ( this coming from an old school guy that used the dials on an 1895 vintage Van Norman mill ), but I could find no good videos on more in depth operation of the Mitutoyo DRO. Your video got me up to bat, and making hits :-), as your tutorial was similar for my Mitutoyo. Thanks so much for your time, you are a good teacher and explain well, I love your other videos too.

[bretonkyle]

"and or, when frozen, moves the island" LOL

These bits and pieces are truly what make your videos for me

[martinsechrist]

Wow! Simple enough to follow, comprehensive enough to make me make the leap! Thanks.

[chrismorris]

For bolt circles, instead of calculating the angle of the last hole, add one extra hole and always set the last hole to 360 degrees. i.e., the last hole is a duplicate of the first. This eliminates the possibility of miscalculating the ending angle.

EDIT: as GrahamY1970 suggested, I discovered that setting the start and end angle to the same value will indeed have the same effect as laying out a 360 degree pattern on my import DRO. So if you follow the tip I gave above, your DRO might actually miscalculate the pattern. BEWARE!

[MrXri]

The best DRO tutorial that I have ever seen!!! Thank a lot Quinn.

[cooperken]

That was awesome, had my dro still in it’s box for about 4 years but now I’m feeling I might actually be able to work it out. Thanks for the inspiration and really clear explanation.

[michaelcruz]

As others have already stated, Excellent video and clear explanation. Great job Quin! I’ve been drooling over DRO’s, now it’s painfully obvious I need to get one.

[martinholloway]

This is one of the most helpful videos I’ve ever watched on YouTube. Thanks for the great content. Seriously. Great stuff.