Thread: Digital readout for old thicknesser

It is indeed possible to fit a DRO to just about any woodworking machinery.
Your biggest problem is mounting it to the machine but apart from making a few brackets and fixing it to your thicknesser it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Something like this
6" Digital Readout Read OUT DRO IP54 Stainless Fits Makita Dewalt Planers | eBay

Stewie

Have you looked at the Wixey digital readouts?

Not used one myself but was considering one at a point not too long ago.

Thanks for the answers. We will look at these and try to figure out to mount one.

The Wixeys are good and easy to setup and calibrate.

The portable planer unit copes with a thicknesser to 6 inchs depth capacity, while the remote unit copes with 12 in.

Both require a couple of holes to mount the scale via brackets to the frame, and another couple to mount the sensor on the rise and fall head.

To calibrate, machine a piece of timber to a thin arbitary thickness. Without adjusting or unlocking the machine head, dock off the timber in the middle, lift the scale and insert the docked end into the gap between the scale and holder, lower the scale and press the zero button. This works by elevating the scale by the finished thickness of the timber to sync the indicted reading with the actual timber thickness. The unit will then track height changes till the batteries fail or someone presses the zero button again, but it is quick and easy to recal whenever you feel the need. Units are able to change from Imperial to Metric at the press of button without loosing zero or accuracy.

Only issue I had was my Triton thicky has a sloping face on the frame and I had to pack the scale at the top to get it parallel to the rise and fall guides for the head so the sensor travelled properly.

Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by malb

The Wixeys are good and easy to setup and calibrate.

+1 for the Wixey.

I purchased one from PWS to fit to my CTJ-381 and it is both easy to install and calibrate.

Steven.