I actually will be using mine more now that I can use it accurately. The DRO price is cheap....https://www.ebay.com/itm/6-12-LCD-D...hash=item5683427836:m:m_hZgd228lvU48pePSp657A
It takes some time to make the bracket and drill/tap some holes but I would say about 3 hours start to finish the most.
Dave
That's unfortunate you had problems with yours. I have two installed on my lathe and an earthquake wouldn't move them.I bought an i gauging DRO for my jet lathe from E bay and spent a good chunk of time installing it and getting it just perfect. Man it worked good, until..............I turned on my router mounted to the tool post. The vibrations scrambled the slide and it lost track of where it was.
Threw it in the garbage and bought a well used travadial. Should have done that in the first place. No comparison whatsoever even if the router hadn't messed with it.
Your mileage may vary if you don't vibrate the thing just wrong.
JC
I bought an i gauging DRO for my jet lathe from E bay and spent a good chunk of time installing it and getting it just perfect. Man it worked good, until..............I turned on my router mounted to the tool post. The vibrations scrambled the slide and it lost track of where it was.
Threw it in the garbage and bought a well used travadial. Should have done that in the first place. No comparison whatsoever even if the router hadn't messed with it.
Your mileage may vary if you don't vibrate the thing just wrong.
JC
Basically anything that needs to be accurately made flat, so point wood, inlay stuff for rings etc. Plus any other project I may get involved with
As far as the IGAGE brand, so far they work well, have a 3ft one on my deluxe cuesmith
I have used a jointer, but found it to be a pain to keep the fence squared to the table, and it liked to chatter when doing hardwoods, a pain to re-sharped, or replace blades, not to mention more dangerous to operate. Plus my shop is small and it got cramped having both pieces of machinery. I currently use my CNC to square up 2 sides, then drum sand the 2 opposite sides and then a quick pass on the first 2 sides to remove any marks from the CNC cutting.
Dave
It's possible to have both in one machine.
Power feed swings out of the way to use as a hand feed jointer with fence.
Bottom line, though, jointers and jointer-like machines are designed to make one surface dead flat (when set up and dialed in correctly); not necessarily 2 surfaces parallel. Then the work goes into some sort of planer, widebelt sander, or other surfacer to make the second side parallel with the first.
Thanks for the IGage info - was not familiar with them. Have been interested in getting less than machine tool price DRO for my shaft profiler. Unfortunately IGage list the longer versions as being "out of stock" :frown: Also, ideally, I'd like 40" - 42" which is the top rail capacity on my machine (for other uses) so if there are other inexpensive/reasonably accurate options, would be glad to hear.
smt
It's possible to have both in one machine.
smt
I have used a jointer, but found it to be a pain to keep the fence squared to the table, and it liked to chatter when doing hardwoods, a pain to re-sharped, or replace blades, not to mention more dangerous to operate. Plus my shop is small and it got cramped having both pieces of machinery. I currently use my CNC to square up 2 sides, then drum sand the 2 opposite sides and then a quick pass on the first 2 sides to remove any marks from the CNC cutting.
Dave