HM50 Digital readout.

[lantain1982]

Looking for some advice on fitting a digital readout unit to the quill down feed on a HM50 vertical mill. any ideas on type of unit plus fitting of support brackets to the mill head casting [drilling and tapping] would be appreciated. Many thanks. Bill C.

[.RC.]

Mitutoyo make one that retails for around $450..it comes with brackets that will fit straight onto a bridgeport/clone.. Here is one from Qualos http://www.mtiqualos.com.au/images/machine_tooling/MTItext-55.pdf

They are called quill kits.

[Big Shed]

CDCO (http://www.cdcotools.com/index.php) in the US have quite a range of both horizontal and vertical DROs and readouts.

There are a few different DROs that turn up on Ebay regularly as well.

[Dave J]

Hi I put a glass scale on my HM52 and there was a far amount of side play in the quill as it only relys on the rack gear to stop it from turning.I didnt notice how much until I went to fit the scale so I ended up making a piece of pipe to go around it with a cut in it and welded two pieces of flatbar either side so that it clamped on then I welded a piece of 22mm sqaure out and up the front almost to the top cover then added 2 blocks of 22mm steel bolted each side horizontal to the front just under the name plate to keep it from turning side to side.I know you are not talking about glass scales but somthing similar would give you a base to mount a cheap scale.The sidways movement twists the scale and adds and subtracts to the reading on the scale which makes it inaccurate,only a small amount, check yours and you will see what I mean. Hope this helps.Dave

[Dave J]

Here is what you are looking for http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/viewtopic.php?t=78632&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=quill+clamp&start=0 Dave