Installing a 3 Axis M-DRO on the Metal Planer Milling Machine - Machine DRO
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- čas přidán 21. 04. 2023
- The Metal Planer Milling Machine has been an extremely useful machine here at Topper Machine LLC. But its usefulness is limited due to setup time for some jobs. Now with the addition of the Machine DRO digital readout, this machine will be far more versatile and ready for almost any job.
Machine DRO, or M-DRO is a division of Allendale Group LTD in the United Kingdom. They sell many brands of DRO, but I prefer their own brand, M-DRO.
Check them our if you want a great DRO
www.machine-dro.co.uk/
Topper Machine LLC is an entirely manual machine shop located in Spooner, WI. Our videos will highlight some of our shop work.
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That was really interesting how you can modernize an old machine to make it much easier to use. Now you have the reliability of the old machine with the modern convenience of the digital readout. Well worth the money, time and effort to do the conversion.
Don't know much about digital readouts ,so very interesting!
G’day Josh. Always love seeing your large metal planer in action. The DRO will be a game changer. Cheers 🍻 Aaron
Great use of old Planner ,putting a Bridgeport head on cross rail and DRO on all ways makes the planer Machine . a Jigboring Machine. Great Work
Love this channel! I'm from Southern Illinois and my buddies and I go to the Chippewa Flowage every year in September for a fishing trip and always have a blast!... you live in gods country! Its almost magical up there when the sun is sitting on the lake and the loons are calling... thank you for sharing your videos!
Yes, magical when it's not a frozen hell. Hopefully we get a good month of summer this year, so far not looking good.
Enjoyed the video Josh nicely done with the DRO, nice machine to your just to the North West of me 35 Miles. Take care of yourself and family and be Blessed ❤️❤️👍.
Beautiful machine. This could be handy in so many ways, esp for resurfacing my old lathe bed!! :)
I had given up setting up my 1972 Harrison lathe with a DRO system until I saw this video, which prompted me to poke around their website. M DRO is unique. They have three different sized magnetic reading heads. Unlike this standard installation, the other two, with much smaller heads, come without any infrastructure or cover, but allow the magnetic tape and stainless cover to be adhesive installed in a self machined groove and enclosure design, resulting in a very small footprint. The much smaller footprint then allows installing the reading head on the back of the lathe ways instead of in front of the tailstock. Since my lathe has a full cross slide that hangs over the carriage, this makes for the perfect installation.... the price, including shipping to Arizona from England, can't be beat.
I can't say enough good things about M-DRO. You will be happy with their products and support. I'm actually about to order another one for the Morey Vertical Shaper.
When you extend your shafts for handle clearance, install a 10 to 1 or 20 to 1 second drive position for fine adjusted mandated by the DRO. Install a wheel and stop handle tapping to get your numbers
It's always nice getting new tools! Even better when it's as much of an improvement as a DRO.
Now you can measure properly when it only needs to go a RCH.
Thank you for showing this install, I am about to order one of these so your video is very helpful.
Another thumbs up for "M-DRO"
Hats off Josh that is a badass machine for sure, and your work looks beautiful. Getting bracketry square off of the design form and pattern draft of old machinery is always a real PITA, and then the aluminum shiny new stuff always sticks out like a sore thumb too. But as soon as you start working, the DRO is Always WELL worth it. Cheers and thanks for all that you do!
It was quite a job with this machine, but definitely worth it.
@@TopperMachineLLC after losing my mind shimming brackets back and forth, something I hit on was to drill and tap for 3 small set screws in the base of the bracket where it mounts to the machine. The set screws provide a 3 point foot system that allows you to level and pitch the bracket before fastening.
@@shaolinshaotse I've done that on some of the brackets I've built. Works extremely well.
Nice job Josh. Your brackets look a lot better than the ones supplied with the DRO. I'm right in the middle of installing a 4 axis DRO on my horizontal boring mill. I'm not looking forward to installing the scale for the boring spindle. The bracket that transfers motion from the spindle to the scale head is going to have to bend in about six directions. Ken
I really like this machine. An old machine modernized and put back into service. Super cool
What a cool machine you're making there
Make that plus one for M-DRO, I had a glass scale from them that became unreliable outside any warranty period and asked about buyng a new one, explaining why, and they said bring it over, they only an about hours drive from me,and they would inspect it. Turns out it was just dirty but the changed the redhead anyway. Anyway great service!
I bought a kit last year to fit my lathe, but I can't be arsed to fit it as it involves moving the lathe away from the wall to get to the back. Maybe one day?
PS, on the brackets topic, general purpose bits will never be as good as custom made ones but if they work that is what is important, and once fitted you tend to forget them anyway.
And what a great idea, it's like a vertical mill with the largest table ever!
Hi 1 good feature on these DRO,s is the 200 position datum from absolute zero. All can be zero out.
I put a magnetic set on my lathe. Due to very limited space under the x slide as no wanted it fitted so the tailstock hits it.
Steve in UK
Nice job , I’d not seen that type of scale before they look very user friendly to fit / adapt to your requirements.
Particularly liked your brackets for the Y axis very nicely done there 👍🏻
M-dro appears to be a nice bit of kit , iv used an older version at work for some time ( I didn’t fit it ) anyway it’s been 100% reliable
Giving an old machine it's 2nd life, again, very useful machine tool.
Brackets look proper 👌.
Thanks for sharing.
I'm actually guessing this would be its third or fourth life. Lol. It's been around
@@TopperMachineLLC sir,your machine mechanism use gear or threaded rod (X axiz)🤝👍
DRO's certainly are nice to have. They make life lots easier.
Very nice upgrades to a WWI vintage planer !
Nice job. I need to check with them...
Outstanding Job Josh.
The MDro kit is pretty nice.
Very professional install.
This modification and update will really modernize your mill.
I liked how you used it to do the scale mounts before you were done.
Nice job.
The Scale brackets were Trick on the Y axis, excellent design.
Thanks for sharing.
Take care, Ed.
The planer project looks really nice. Appears will be a great addition of the DRO system.
Thanks for sharing.
Great job Josh. I really do like the heavy duty brackets you made for the Y axis. I am in the process of installing a DRO on one of my mills and I used 1' x 2" aluminum bar stock. Made the cover out of 2"x 2" aluminum angle. Using beefy materials helps to eliminate problems later. Thanks for bringing us along.
Fantastic attention to small details. I must say that watching this channel has really changed the way I do my woodworking - I used to get it done right the 2nd time or so. Not anymore.
Quite a transformation Josh! Almost a CNC Planer lol. Hey, there's an idea....
Josh, I love to see the old being integrated with the new! You have a huge platen on your mill that is now totally accurate. Thank you for the link to Machine DRO, I think this would work well on my Marena Mill, TY!
I’ve seen that on a lot of older machines looks like it was fairly easy to install great job buddy thanks for sharing
It installed well when I figured out where to put it all. Almost anywhere I could put it would have been a bad spot. But these were the least intrusive.
sir,your machine mechanism use gear or screw/threaded rod (X axiz)🤝👍
I'm happy with you too! Best regards from Dresden! 👍🛠🇩🇪🍻🇺🇸😎
Good choice with the M-DRO scales. I've had a 3 axis set on my mill for 5 yrs now and they've performed faultlessly.
Looks like a pretty nice DRO. When setting up a bolt circle on my DRO, I always add an extra hole and just set the end angle to 360. That puts the last hole where the first hole is and it keeps me from having to do math! You just ignore the last hole. I don't se why it wouldn't work on your DRO. Give it a try.
Great suggestion. Never even considered it.
I'd love to put DRO on m South bend 13 lathe, but mounting looks like a NIGHTMARE!
It always is on these older machines. One of my Monarchs was almost as bad as the planer. But it is always worth it.
nice job getting it done. Now you can be faster at getting things done lol
The DRO installation looks great and I really like the work you have done to this machine
The machine is coming along nicely. Won't be long and it will be working regularly.
👍👍👍
It's good to see a shop that actually "uses" their planer, rather than having it as just a showpiece!
why not use a stepper motor instead of the crank?
In my not so humble opinion, the only recommendations that are worth anything are from people who paid their own hard earned money to purchase the product. No exceptions.
I appreciate your endorsement of a product that you purchased.
I agree and I did pay for it. I've paid for all 4 of them I have. Great units.
@@TopperMachineLLC My apologies, I was not questioning whether you paid for the equipment.
I wanted to make a point about all the endorsements we see on YT. I will edit the comment to make that clear.
I agree on the over endorsements. I keep getting offers for stuff that I have no desire to use or promote. I do a little with a couple of companies, but it is only stuff I will use and prove to be worthy. Endorsement for the sake of monetary gain is not what I am willing to do.
Does that DRO do hole patterns in a straight line? I mean the math wouldn't be too hard if the DRO doesn't, but it'd be handy.
It sure does. They are great units.
My question is, on the Z axis could you put in a motor?
I'm considering it, but not sold on the idea. As I use the machine only on occasion, how much money and time does one invest?
@@TopperMachineLLC I do like the idea and looking forward to seeing it working
Tidy
in the wilderness where you live, you need a small aircraft in order to travel, correct?
It's not quite that bad. But it is remote.
@@TopperMachineLLC
who said it was bad? To live in a place that can only be reached by aircraft could be pretty sweet.
@@tallswede80 hard to make a living here, would be way worse if we were more remote.
@@TopperMachineLLC
you have to provide a service that is not available anywhere else. I know several machine shops in the middle of nowhere that are quite successful. One in particular, all the employees are Mennonite farmers.
@@tallswede80 I would love to setup a small shop at home , however with being located ten miles outside of town I cannot get three phase , or more than 230 volts of power from my provider . A diesel powered generator is not in the budget , nor is a phase converter. Suppose I could always go back to the old trick of running things thru a second idler motor . Never thought I would have to go fifty years backwards to my past in order to accomplish my goals of today .
It looks like this M-DRO brand of readout, you end up covering the mounting screws that attach the linear encoders with the magnetic encoder strip. Since it is an adhesive attachment, that means you have to pull the adhesive loose and take the strip out, if you ever want to dismount the linear encoders. This seems very BAD to me. It seems you effectively ruin the magnetic strip if you have to remove it to take out the mounting screws. For my machines, I will NOT be buying the M-DRO product. I really want to be able to take the linear encoder scales off, if I have to work on the machine, like take the table off or whatever. But your video showed the product well. Thank you for that. It was good and useful information. I will probably buy a SINO or SHARS DRO setup for my machines. Thanks. --Doozer
Yes, the magnetic scale probably would be ruined. But, I have never had a reason to take them off. They do sell more magnetic tape, and it is very reasonably prices. I have one of the SINO readouts, and although it performs well, it is very bulky compared to these.
@@TopperMachineLLC Thanks Josh. Good to know you can buy more magnetic tape. One possible good application of these DROs is a surface or tool/cutter grinder. As you know, the tables just set on the saddles. It looks like the M-DRO read head does not contact the linear scale. This would be ideal for taking the table off surface or TC grinder, as not to have to worry about disconnecting the read head. But I have a concern... Would grinding dust be attracted to those magnetic encoder strips ? ? ? -----Doozer
Josh,
Nice professional job doing all that.....AS USUAL. If I might make a lil suggestion; on your Z axis, instead of a removeable crank like there is now....why not affix a hand wheel of some type and just leave it there.....use the moveable hand crank for just X and Y.....a dedicated hand wheel on Z wont take up anymore room, its out of the way actually and with a li palm spinner it will be easy easy and quick to use......just a thought......Weather here is finally breaking, snow is close to almost gone, strong winds are drying out the woods big time, total burn bann..NOT a good thing.....next is to prepare for BUG season.....LOL
Don
It takes a bit of force to raise the head, so a wheel may not work. I've been considering a small gear motor instead. Make life way easier. It's a great machine, just needs a tiny bit more upgrading.
Good point......wonder if you could adapt one of the cheaper z axis SERVO type power feed clones like we use on our Knee mills....where theres a will there's a way....@@TopperMachineLLC
I did a closeup look of the shaft that runs that crown gear for the Z.....I believe you COULD make a mounting plate and adapt a knee mill power feed to drive that shaft.
Nice clean installation! Permit me a moment of envy that your planer is a pretty petite little deal for its table travel and size. Was your DRO a customized deal or was is for a particular machine (like a lathe)? And another question pertaining to planers: if you change the elevation of your tool bar (where the mill head is mounted) have you ever observed that the tram will be off from one end of the bar to the other (due to there being 2 lead screws)? I was told that was an issue with my machine. Have a good day!
Dro was ordered by size. Scales are customizable for length. No real standard setups with these. I have not noticed a problem with tram, but now you have me curious. I should check it out.
Just be mindful and not use your fingernails when punching in values or they will eventually break through the plastic membrane.
customer service... and they speak English !!!!!
It is always good to see you. I am glad that you were able to do the upgrade on your machine. I am sure that it took some time but it has to be right. It will make using that machine a lot better. I am glad that you have the skill to install it yourself. The day before Easter, we had 5 elk pass by here in Hawkins, WI; do you have any by you???? Thanks for the video.
No elk here. Got to go east for them.