DIYbanter - HAPPY ENDING: Bought the wrong DRO.

Bolted on a huge pair, and machined the encoders, and even cut one to
length. CAREFULLY, machining the Aluminum extrusion on the front and
rear surfaces to expose the scale, diamond sawed the scale, Then
milled the final side to complete the cut. Naturally, cleaned the
scale well, isopropanol and dry nitrogen.*
The Anilam unit works great on my little old Arboga U2508. Got
spoiled so fast, I bought another unit for my Souyth Bend Model A.
For a substantial lesser amount I got a Jenix unit. I repeated the
operation on the crossfeed encoder, and had bought an extra cross
slide assembly on EBay (No one in Connecticut!) some time ago that was
in better condition than my original. It took some extensive
machining but I got it up and running in 24 hours after it was
delivered Saturday,
I cringe and blush to admit it, but I see no difference in performance
between the two..the US made Anilam and the Jenix, made in Korea. In
fact, the Jenix has a better-designed mounting arm, and a far more
sophisticated roller-guided encoder array.
So I have an Arboga MillDrill that I bought for $275.00 and a South
Bend Model A (Rollerized thrust head-See archives) that I bought for
25 cents a pound, and both are resolving to 5 microns.

It made me laugh to get a Wholesale Tool catalogue today and to see
that I could have boght a new Milldrill and a new lathe (No power
XFeed, and so much of my work is facing, it would have been useless to
me) for what I paid for the DRO's. Kind of like putting a Jaguar V12
in a Reliant, I suppose, but my machines, small and old as they are,
work hard for me and pay me well.

* I was a master instrument builder for a biomed company doing
optoelectronic work a long while ago, so do these at your own risk-But
it's really not that big a deal.