What's new
What's new

Advice on DRO for Bridgeport

EnderMill13

Plastic
Joined
Jul 27, 2022
I did a decent amount of research to find a reasonably priced DRO, landed on DROPROS 3 axis DRO kit and unfortunately they're sold out until the end of the year. I have been looking for an alternative in the $1000 range and they are all either sold out, way out of my price range, or Chinese cheap stuff that I don't really trust. Does anyone have any recommendations for 3 axis DRO kits, even if they're cheaper (that you can vouch for). Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks,
Adam

PS: the mill is a 1967 Bridgeport Series 1 J-Head w/ 9x42 table.
 
Sometimes you need to ignore the incendiary bomb and all his bird port BS. Is a Bridgeport a machine that will make a 5" wide 1" deep cut in steel? No chance. I have been using a 2J for 40 years and a V2xT 3 axis cnc for about 15 years. Used as intended they are fine machines. The AcuRite 2 axis on the 2J has .0005 resolution, I have no problem holding .001 anytime I need to. I make disc brake bells mostly for Alfa's, guys seem to want to put giant A P rotors and Brembo's on them, whatever. When I cut the slots for 12 drive dogs .0004 over the dog size and it all drops right together that tells me that the old Bridgeport is just FINE.
 
First the disclaimer, I am not a fan of the Chinese, that said there making most of our T.V,s and Cell phones, and a bunch of other electronic equipment we purchase here in the states. Most but not all of my DRO's are Fagor. I purchased a new 1660 lathe last year and it came with a Sino DRO, The DRO is made in China. At first my thought was to pull it all off and install something like Fagor, however we tested the DRO across its entire travel range and found it to be very accurate in both X and Y, repeatability was excellent. I am not sure of this but I think the company DROPROS uses Sino systems.
Anyway, Sino DRO's are inexpensive and after a one year of daily use it's working fine.
 
Quick amazon search for dro shows delivery on Sunday. That is without looking for a particular size of course.

I am kinda ashamed to get stuff from amazon (walmart too), but it's become almost an "if you can't beat them join them" thing.
 
 
I recently purchased a ToAuto 3 axis DRO for under $250. I put it on my Series II. Everything checks out accurately but I have not put the machine through its paces yet to determine durability of components. I have been told that this is the brand that actual Bridgeport rebuilder(s) are using on their machines. That is firsthand information about rebuilder using them and not just anecdotal bullshit.
 
The cheap chinese DRO on my bridgeport that came on my bridgeport just failed. At first I couldn't use the Y axis because the scale/ reader head stopped reading correctly. Kept wondering why my parts weren't accurate and it ended up being that while moving the Y axis, the reader head/scale would randomly not read for a second causing the value to not increase while turning. No amount of reader head adjusting or cleaning would get rid of it. Then the DRO screen itself started flickering and now wont turn on at all.

Tempted to buy another cheap one to replace it but I can't stand going through all the effort of installing everything perfectly just for the cheapo scale and reader head to fail in 3 months. I emailed DROPROS this morning for a quote but they didn't get back to me yet and probably wont since they told you they're out of stock. I put one of their magnetic scale sets on my lathe two years ago and have loved it, would like to have my bridgeport match it.

If a $1000 DRO set up saves me from worrying about accuracy, scrapping parts, or having to randomly count the knob turns for a week because the screen shit the bed then I'm fine with that.
 
I have both DRO Pros and Sony Magnescale. The Sony is made in Japan and the DRO Pro is made in India. They both work fine. The Sony has been running since 1982 with zero problems. The DRO Pro about 3 years with zero problems and it cost a lot less than the Sony.
 
I should have added the ToAuto was replacing an older Mitutoyo that kept skipping on X. Simple old DRO but couldn’t find replacement scale for it so a new foreign unit it was. Supposedly they are quality and have good customer service if needed.
 
Last edited:
I recently purchased a ToAuto 3 axis DRO for under $250. I put it on my Series II. Everything checks out accurately but I have not put the machine through its paces yet to determine durability of components. I have been told that this is the brand that actual Bridgeport rebuilder(s) are using on their machines. That is firsthand information about rebuilder using them and not just anecdotal bullshit.
Good to hear, this is the one I was planning on going with so that's good news. Thank you everyone for your responses, I really appreciate it.
 








 
Back
Top