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Guy running the lathe next to me said you should never trust a digital readout, and now I keep second guessing mine
He has been turning parts for 22 years at a job shop in Dayton and swears the old dials on his manual machine are more honest than any DRO. I asked why and he said a DRO just shows you a number, while a dial makes you feel the backlash in your hand. I get where he is coming from because I found a .003 drift on my Z axis after a long run and did not notice until the part was scrap. But the other guy on our floor says that is operator error, not the readout, and that checking your numbers is just part of the job. We have 6 mills with DROs and nobody wants to go back to counting turns. So which is it, is a DRO a crutch or is hating on them just old school pride? Curious what the rest of you run and why.
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grant8561mo ago
So the old guy ever check his dial with a gauge, or does he just trust his hand feel? Because backlash on a dial will lie to you just as fast if you forget which way you came in. Seems like the .003 drift is a check your numbers problem, not a DRO problem.
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