DRO Part 1 - Installing the Linear Scale on my Well Index Milling Machine

Installing Linear Scales on my Wells Index Milling Machine

Be sure and check out the leveling casters used on this milling machine. They easily handled the weight of this mill and are available at a bargain price!

[andrewdolinskiatcarpathian]

What a coincidence. I began fitting the same make scales on my own milling machine today. It’s great when a long overdue project comes together. 👏👏👍😀

[bradmaynard]

I like the way you demonstrate construction problems, during installation, and "on the fly" solutions!!

[magicbytes]

Hello Winky, good job, looking forward to part 2, cheers from me 😷👍👍👍

[lv_woodturner]

Good progress. Well done. Mounting DRO's to old machines is a challenge due to the machine not having been designed with technology which did not exist at the time.

[bheckel]

Just installed the toauto 3 axis on my jet 13x40. Y is on the tailstock. The scales are huge. It has taken 3 weeks of varroas bracket making and guards and cable management. I ended up with the whole carriage, cross, apron and tail torn down. each mounted in the mill for flats and tapped holes. all cleaned and deburred and generally made better. The lathe is new to me. also installed one shot oiler on bed ways. I will add the cross when I figure out the clearance. Its only after/before work and every other weekend.

Love the channel. thanks for keeping me company out in the shop.

[TERRYB]

Mr Winky, I have installed DROs on both the mill and two lathes, once you start to trust them they are great, if you have not had DROs before it takes a while to realise how accurate they are 👴🏻👍

[daveticehurst]

Great video Mark. If that was me I would have plugged in the display as soon as I had fitted the first scale. No only to check it works but also to have seen what the display looks like and to encourage me to battle on with the other two. Just hope it all works fine. Fingers crossed. Yee Hah. I like it. 😁 Regards from Australia.

[AmateurRedneckWorkshop]

Way to handle the install. The brackets they send with the DRO always fit some other machine. I installed a toauto at one time and it works great. When you check it make sure your indicator is square to the travel or the reading will be off a thousandth or so. Thanks for the video keep on keeping on.

[billjulian]

I like how you did the mounting, very subdued and stock looking. A very interesting video; I look forward to your Friday postings!

[ellieprice]

Good job well explained. I like the way you do it one step at the time figuring it out as you go. Prints are useless and a waste of time until the third
prototype is finished. 👍👍👍

[JohnnieBravo]

Nice install! As I was talking at you during this installation on my monitor on differences in what you were doing, and what I went thru to set up my Lagun, making sure it was absolutely dialed in up and down, and in and out within I think it was 0.005 throughout the full travel (after driving the table out past the end of the scale, and crashing the reader head, and having to replace the X it was a "learning experience" possibly character building), I realized, your scale is stationary and your reader head moves with the table. My setup is the reader head is stationary, and the scale moves. That way the cable isn't flexing and stressing during table movement. All the best Winky!

[RAYAR]

Nicely done, Mark. Looks like you had fun doing the install.

[TheAyrCaveShop]

Good one Mark, combining the cover and mount worked out nicely
ATB....

[bobuk]

Hi Mark, this is an elegant solution. I'm about to fit a magnetic scale DRO to something much more mundane than your piece of machinery art form. I'm having yet another 'design' think as your approach might give me a more compact installation. I would like to retain the X axis power feed end stops, the ability to set hard stops for manual use and of course not to cover up oil points, all of which present various interesting challenges. The oil port challenge I'm dealing with by adding a one shot oil system at the same time. The table hard stops may have to be sacrificed but I do want to retain the power feed limit switches. The idea I have had with those is to split them from being centre mounted to having one at each end of the table. Like others below I'm aiming for having fixed read heads. It's all proving quite a tricky packaging problem! The Z axis hand crank on my machine is also exhausting and I intend putting a PF on it as well. In the meantime maybe an adapter and a cordless drill.

[billybike]

Thanks for sharing, I always get great ideas from watching your videos!

[shawnmrfixitlee]

going to make the mill way better .. you will learn it pretty fast, enjoyed Mark !

[daveticehurst]

Another point too, wonder how long it will be before you fit some power feed to the knee ❓that’s a lot of handle winding for full movement 😁. If the hand wheel comes off easily, make an adaptor that fits your drill for rapid movement. Then pop the handle back on for fine adjustment. Regards

[cogentdynamics]

Congratulations on 40k + subscribers Mark! Another fun video, thanks.

[WayneCook]

So far so good well done look forward to the next one.👍👍👍

[f.hababorbitz]

So I was looking at how to put a scale on my W-I 645 mill knee, which does not have the same flange to mount the scale on. And it has one shot oiler tubes on both sides, near the sliding way. The sides of its knee are close to the side parallel wise to the main stand of the mill.
And I thought if I were to nod or tilt my head, similar to yours, that you could raise the table much higher. But if that happens, you could just buy the longer scale. In all the years I've owned my mill, I've never moved the head from vertical, and fight keeping it trammed.