Harold and Susan Vordos wrote:
Considering my lack of electronics prowess, I tend to see it much like that.
Besides, I get great pleasure from being able to work without one, although
I acknowledge that many things would happen faster with one. I am a
dinosaur in today's manufacturing world, that I understand all too well, so
I look at my self as one restoring a vintage car---------make it as good as
you can----but keep it original. You have to work with someone with my
mindset to fully understand----it's not just what we do, it's how we do it,
and what we are. :-)

Then there are those of us who are just too cheap to buy a DRO I
freely admit there are times when it would be helpful, the most recent
being a small stepped part on an RT - more clamps than work visible, so
there was not much in the way of a clear path for a scale. For most
things that I do, it is easy to slap a scale on the work and use the
dials to refine positions.

For windows, a DRO would save some time. I mark the corners with a
30-50 thou plunge, which is the worst of it (travel time mosly).
Working out the backlash-affected dial readings does not take long.

I can see why someone cranking out large numbers of parts on a daily
basis would want one. In my case, I'd rather direct the money to
another machine some day.



I can work either way though I'm more likely to blue and scribe lines when
using dials to keep me honest.

I use my ever present 6" (or larger----I have them up to 24") scale, and
rarely, if ever, make a layout.

I use layout fluid for rough cutting, which I mostly do on a bandsaw.
The time it takes to do the layout appears to be more than repaid in
less time on the mill - I think. I tend not to make layouts beyond
that, because it would usually be an extra step. I either fly-cut to
thickness (kinda tough on the layout fluid left over from roughing), or
am too chicken to clean rough cuts to the layout. As soon as I hit
clean metal, I stop and begin cleaning the other side. The result is
that my rough layout is always shifted just a little, so any further
layout would be shifted too.

Every so often a layout survives long enough to be useful in approaching
final dimensions, and they are indeed helpful.

Bill