Get digitalized! Sorry, no engraving here.

[Leonardo]

Hi all!

I would like to share this job with my engravers friends because it was a funny one and also very usable and an improvement to my lathe. I am getting older and my eyes are not what used to be and also I am not a very good machinist, so this kind of helps works quite well for me.
I know that some of you are machinist and also all of you are very well with your hands, so any of you can get advantage of these cheap Chinese calipers (capacitive type) for alternative uses.
I did the shears stop five years ago and it was really great, so I spent the past weekend doing these DROs (digital read out) for my new lathe.
Have fun!
Leonardo

PS. I can resist the temptation to add the scrap picture!

 

[James Wark]

Thanks Leonardo,

That is a really neat idea, and much less expensive then a full DRO set up. The worst part is you now added more to my things to do list.

Jim

 

[Tim Wells]

That's mighty clever! Looks like a nice little lathe too.

 

[fegarex]

From time to time on Ebay you can find a 3 axis readout head with larger numbers that will plug into most of those scales as well. If you need longer scales they are available as well. Nice job!

 

[Doc Mark]

That is an elegant solution! The only problem is changing all those batteries. I have two digital calipers and they seem to devour those tiny batteries!

Thanks for showing your set-up,

Mark

 

[gtsport]

Digi-calipers

Great application! I had the same idea for the Z axis on my Gorton pantograph, I really don't know why I didn't consider it for the other two, now I will.

Joe Paonessa

 

[Leonardo]

Thank you all for your comments. It was an easy project.
Do not worry about the battery life, it last almost a year.
Have a great weekend!
Leonardo

 

[Peter E]

Very clever work Leonardo. I love tools and it is a pleasure to see how you digitized your lathe.

Thanks,
Peter

 

[pappy]

Leanardo,
For not being a machinist I think you are doing extraordinary work. I am a machinist by profession and I think you have many good ideas! Keep up the good work!!!!

 

[Leonardo]

Thank you, but it is not an original idea. You can find many DROs in Internet as was said by Rex, but you always need to solve your application.
This thread was with the intention of encouraging my friends to do this application that really worth the effort.
And yes Steve, believe me, I am not a good machinist!
Kind regards,
Leonardo