Installing a DRO Digital Read Out on a Lathe

[henryarnold]

The placement of the scale is critical to making sure that the carriage can be move through it's full travel. It's also important that the height of the scale match the reach of the bracket that connects to the pickup and the back of the carriage. I used two powerful magnets to temporarily mount the scale to the bed so I could move it around for the best position.
   
The bracket is aluminum so I used double sided tape to mount it temporarily so that I could check where it would line up with the scale pickup. Once I got everything in a position that worked, I made small ink pen marks on the lathe and removed the scale and bracket.
   
I then measured the placement of the bracket holes on the carriage and the scale mounting holes on the bed.
   
I center punched each location and then rechecked the dimensions. The bracket holes are 60 mm apart and for my scale the mounting holes are 700 mm apart. I don't have any accurate tool to mark off 700 mm so I used an aluminum yardstick and eye balled it the best I could.