Category Archives: DRO

DRO – off we go!

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Well, I thought it about time I fitted the DRO kit to my F3. I bought the kit from Machine-DRO (part of the Allendale Group) – only because I have bought from them before and found them to be very helpful. The 3 axis kit is suitable for a Bridgeport and seems to costs no more for longer scales, the scales being of the slim magnetic type.

First task is to mount the readout unit. As you can see the arm is longer than required but allows mew to position the unit where I am happy with it. I can then saw off the spare length.

I’m fairly happy with the position but I won’t cut the bar until the last moment.

Now onto the scales…..

 

Inverter

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After a lot of thought, I decided the best way forward was to fit an inverter. I was lucky enought to get a new inverter at a sensible price – 240v single phase in , 415v 3 phase out. It is a 2HP model, so should match up well to the motor. (which is only a single voltage motor but twin speed).This should make life a little easier for me as far as wiring up is concerned. I may try and work out how to wire in an LED speed indicator…..

inverter

It is currently with a friend who picked it up for me.

I’m not sure whether to mount a control box on the back of the machine or have the VFD mounted away from the machine. I’m a way off from having to worry about this yet.

DRO’s

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I will be fitting a 3 axis digital readout in due course so I thought I would create a separate section for this. I will add to this as and when I design the decoder mounts etc. What did occur to me was that this machine has two tapped holes in the back of the main carriage ready for mounting the Z decoder: (unless these are used for something else!!)

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