Well, this has been in progress forever, but I finished installing a Jenix DRO
on the quill of my Millrite MVI vertical mill (resembles a Bridgeport, but about
2/3 the size) today. I now have X, Y, and Z axes covered.

What a help a DRO is, especially with older machines with wear.

Now, only the knee lacks a scale. I have the necessary scale, but don't know
when I'll get around to installing it. The quill was far more important, and
the knee is the most difficult case - odd shape, nothing flat or perpendicular.

The big issue with putting a DRO on the Millrite (made in June 1965) is that it
was never designed for any such thing, so usually there is no convenient
machined surface to use.

Having a lathe helped a lot, allowing lots of custom little adapters and spacers
to be made.

I'll take some pictures and post them to the dropbox when I have some time.

Joe Gwinn

Joseph Gwinn wrote:

Well, this has been in progress forever, but I finished installing a Jenix DRO
on the quill of my Millrite MVI vertical mill (resembles a Bridgeport, but about
2/3 the size) today. I now have X, Y, and Z axes covered.

I started a gatling project over two hears ago. Buying and repairing a lathe and a mill
extended the start date a bunch.

What a help a DRO is, especially with older machines with wear.

If your Z (column) ways are a bit whupped, the quill dialed in is all you can really
trust. I have a bit of wear in my Z column on my bridgeport but when it matters enough, I
can work around it. Thankfully X and Y were rescraped at one point and hard chromed.
Table surface a bit ugly.

Now, only the knee lacks a scale. I have the necessary scale, but don't know
when I'll get around to installing it. The quill was far more important, and
the knee is the most difficult case - odd shape, nothing flat or perpendicular.

The big issue with putting a DRO on the Millrite (made in June 1965) is that it
was never designed for any such thing, so usually there is no convenient
machined surface to use.

Having a lathe helped a lot, allowing lots of custom little adapters and spacers
to be made.

I'll take some pictures and post them to the dropbox when I have some time.

I would like to see them. Someday my ancient Sony scales are going to die and going 3
axis will on my agenda.

Wes

In article ,
Wes wrote:

Joseph Gwinn wrote:

Well, this has been in progress forever, but I finished installing a Jenix
DRO
on the quill of my Millrite MVI vertical mill (resembles a Bridgeport, but
about
2/3 the size) today. I now have X, Y, and Z axes covered.

I started a gatling project over two hears ago. Buying and repairing a lathe
and a mill extended the start date a bunch.

What a help a DRO is, especially with older machines with wear.

If your Z (column) ways are a bit whupped, the quill dialed in is all you can really
trust. I have a bit of wear in my Z column on my bridgeport but when it
matters enough, I can work around it. Thankfully X and Y were rescraped at one point
and hard chromed. Table surface [is] a bit ugly.

I don't really know if the Z-axis ways are whupped or not, although one assumes
that they have had their fair share of wear over the last 45 years.


Now, only the knee lacks a scale. I have the necessary scale, but don't know
when I'll get around to installing it. The quill was far more important, and
the knee is the most difficult case - odd shape, nothing flat or
perpendicular.

The big issue with putting a DRO on the Millrite (made in June 1965) is that
it was never designed for any such thing, so usually there is no convenient
machined surface to use.

Having a lathe helped a lot, allowing lots of custom little adapters and
spacers to be made.

I'll take some pictures and post them to the dropbox when I have some time.

I would like to see them. Someday my ancient Sony scales are going to die
and going 3 axis will on my agenda.

If you already have scales on the mill, it will be pretty easy to replace those
scales, compared to adding scales to a pre-DRO machine for the first time.


Joe Gwinn