# DRO for knee mill



## Dan Pantages (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi all. I am looking for a dro for my mill and wondered if any of you know about the ones Grizzly sells. 

http://www.grizzly.com/products/8-x-20-x-16-3-4-3-Axis-Digital-Readout-for-Mills/H7848 

This is the particular one I need for my mill or I think this is the one I need for my mill.

My mill is a Rockwell #21-100. Working surface is 6.5" x 24". X axis is 16", Y axis is 6.75" and Z axis is 16.5"


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## Robby D (Oct 15, 2009)

I don't much about the DRO from Grizzly, but it looks alot like the economy model made by Mitutoyo. I have installed over 500 DRO units on various mills and lathes. By what I see in the pics it looks to be a good economy unit.


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## Dan Pantages (Jan 2, 2008)

Robby, I see a large difference in prices of different DRO's and the specs don't seem to be that different. What makes one worth more than another if they are the same price? I have always thought Mitutoyo was a good brand.


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## Robby D (Oct 15, 2009)

Mitutoyo is an excellent brand. It depends on how much you will use it. If you are using it 8-10 hours a day 5 days a week then I would buy the more expensive unit. When I was still in the business Mitutoyo made a economy unit. Personally I would go with a better brand than Grizzly. Sony & Newall are as good as Mitutoyo as well.


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## s-4 (Jan 2, 2008)

Dan 
If you decide to buy the Grizzly....be sure to look around for coupon codes. I saved a lot of money on my milling machine last year. I'm happy with the quality of everything I've bought to far.


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## Dan Pantages (Jan 2, 2008)

s- 4 - Do you mean the coupon code on the back of the catalogue, it's good for 5%. Are there others? I wish I could hear from someone who has one of their DRO's. 

Robby - I'm just a hobbyist, no production work.


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## Robby D (Oct 15, 2009)

The one you showed from grizzly was a 3 axis DRO. It will work good for hobby knee mill. I've looked at it some more and it appears to a pretty good system for the price. But I don't see a warrantee listed. It should have at least a 3 year warantee.


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## Dan Pantages (Jan 2, 2008)

They have a one year warrantee. I have bought other things from them and have made one claim, they went above and beyond to make it right, no questions asked.


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## spincaster (Mar 10, 2012)

Griz stuff is generally OK and if it works for 6 months it should last a long time if it isn't abused. Another option would be to install a CNC retrofit. Once you use CAD/CAM/CNC ya never want to hand crank a mill again!


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## Dan Pantages (Jan 2, 2008)

I feel I'm already over my head with this mill, I'm not getting into CNC. For me this is a huge step up from my Myford ML7 which has served me well and will for many more years.


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## spincaster (Mar 10, 2012)

Posted By Dan Pantages on 02 Jul 2012 08:21 AM 
I feel I'm already over my head with this mill, I'm not getting into CNC. For me this is a huge step up from my Myford ML7 which has served me well and will for many more years. 

Dan,

Yes, CAD/CAM/CNC has quite the learning curve but then so does manual machining. The ML7 is a nice British lathe! 

You'll do fine with the mill as long as you take some time to do a bit of learning before you try to machine a complex part. Using a mill is pretty straightforward, main thing is matching tool, tool speed and feed to the material at hand. You'll like the DRO since it will help avoid some problems with backlash in your X-Y axis screws. You'll also find that switching between incrimental and absolute modes to be very helpful. Got tooling? You can spend as much on tooling as the mill









*Good luck with the project!*


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## Dan Pantages (Jan 2, 2008)

A friend sent me this URL. 

http://littlemachineshop.com/Reference/CuttingSpeeds.php 

I have found it to work great. I have quite a bit of tooling as in cutters, two mill vices, rotary table, parallel bars, collets, clamping blocks and a few handfuls of layout tools, dial indicators and the like. I was lucky; I picked up everything, including a 3 phase rotary phase converter, for $800, delivered and setup. It’s about 800 pounds. The few very small jobs I have done with it have worked out great.


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