Anyone put an iGaging readout on aJet/Performax drum sander?

[Matt Meiser]

I'd love to see pics!

[Larry Browning]

So Apple is now making digital stuff for woodworkers?

[Van Huskey]

Wixey has 3 examples on Performax. Look down the pare for sanders http://www.wixey.com/planer/fit/index.html#jet

[Dick Mahany]

Matt,

I put an iGaging DRO on my Jet 2244 last year. I originally put one on my JJP12 combo machine that replaced a Jet DRO that was too small to read. The display is much larger and easily moved anywhere I want it with its magnetic base. It works great. Hope the pics help.

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[Matt Meiser]

Van, I saw the Wixey pics but I'm going with an iGaging unit if I do it--I've experienced problems with the reading jumping 0.2" with every Wixey readout I've owned.

Dick--perfect--I should be able to do something similar with mine. Your sander is really just a bigger version of what I bought.

[John TenEyck]

Not to rain on the parade, but doesn't that thing take it's measurement at one location only? If you have any taper across the width you won't know it unless you are checking the part with a set of verniers and, if you are doing that (like I do) why do you need the gage on the machine to start with? And when you change paper you probably have to go through the process of rezeroing the gage, right? It just seems like a poor cost/benefit ratio to me, but maybe it's just me.

John

[Neil Brooks]

I think you raise some good points, John.

I guess much depends on whether you're flattening/finish sanding, or "thicknessing" (to any degree) with your drum sander.

I thickness with the planer, and either flatten or start the finish sanding process with my 16-32. Love my DRO on my planer, but haven't thought to add one to my Performax.

[Matt Meiser]

I wouldn't care about .001 accuracy. Just something a little more readable than the crude pointer they put on there--which is subject to some serious parallax error. Also, being able to do an incremental measurement might be nice.

[Van Huskey]

Sorry Matt, I understood you were using the Igaging, just thought some of the pictures might give you some ideas, since overall they are similar.

[John TenEyck]

I wouldn't care about .001 accuracy. Just something a little more readable than the crude pointer they put on there--which is subject to some serious parallax error. Also, being able to do an incremental measurement might be nice.

Matt, maybe you won't/don't care about 0.001", but I bet you will care when it's something like 0.005". If you have to go back and make a few more parts during a project, then a difference of even 0.005" is easily felt and seen when you put the new parts against the ones made earlier. It's also important when you want to build up a composite, like shop sawn veneer glued to a substrate, to match something like a table leaf. The DRO might get you close, might even get you dead-on, if the machine is set up carefully and calibrated. I regularly sand stuff much wider than my 18" drum, so that means I have to open up the outboard end a few thousandths. When I do that the DRO would have to be recalibrated, then when I close the gap back down again afterwards it would have to be recalibrated again. Since I use a set of verniers while I'm sanding anyway, the DRO would be more pain than pleasure for me. But only you know how you want to use the machine and for what purposes.

John

[Dick Mahany]

With all due respect for the ways we each use our tools, I don't use my DRO for .001" attempts at accuracy like I do on my planer. I DO use it to quickly approach a target starting point and also to monitor subsequent incremental adjustments. The DRO is so much quicker than the scale and as Matt points out, eliminates parallax errors. It also helps me avoid trying to take too large of an initial bite and to avoid the resulting paper burning. The iGaging DRO is realtively inexpensive at under $30. Since I have it set to the thickest, coarsest sand paper grit, I don't bother recalibrating the gauge for finer papers since the error only results in parts that are thicker than nominal and therefore can quickly be reduced with additional adjustments. May seem not worthwhile to some, but I'll never remove mine ;)

Edit: In the interest of full dsclosure, I will admit that I actually used a dial indicator to tweak the "open end" of the sander to be a little on the plus side for reasons John points out. Not to get into a full discussion of Abbe offset errors / axial offset errors and the like, ( I'm working with WOOD, not metal ! ) it still works for me for my purposes although YMMV :)

Best regards

[William C Rogers]

I bought the Supermax 19-38 sander. One of the reasons I bought this sander was that it came with a free DRO. My thinking for the DRO was to use it to take off more precise amounts when sanding. My approach is to reach the final thickness I want and zero the gage. I would then sand to the zero setting. I would use verniers to check the first couple for repeatability. I didn't intend to use to sand to a thickness on the readout. All of this is theroy at this point as I haven't sanded my first piece and may change. I think Dick summed it up by saying we all use our tools to suit our needs. I look at how other people use things and sometimes it is better and sometimes not IMO. I will say the DRO Supermax is well attached. They use a 1/4 bracket to fix the gage to the sander.
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I'll review the sander in another thread.

[Matt Meiser]

William, can you snap a pic of the bottom mounting?

[David Kumm]

William, can you snap a pic of the bottom mounting?

I put a Wixey on my old 25x2 and it worked OK. Some Wixeys are very reliable, others less so. Performax has used Prosale units for years and they are very accurate and reliable. I have that on my 37x2. It is much easier to zero them than the Wixey type. The key is to set the final drum parallel and reference the dial to it. Then leave it alone and don't adjust for different grits. I use 60 or 80 on the first and 120 on the second and don't change the drum relationship. Pretty accurate if you do that. Dave

[Anthony Whitesell]

The iGaging unit for $30 caught my attention. It may be just as cost effective to buy an iGaging unit as it will be to rig up the wixey. Does anyone have the instruction and installation manual for one, or a link to them? I'd like to know how it zeroes and what they suggest for installation before I slap my money down for one. I really like how the Wixey unit zeroes, but I'm always open to (cost effective) options.

[Matt Meiser]

Anthony, basically it zero's whereever you hit the button. On my J/P I plane a piece and shut down the machine. I zero the gage and pull 2 screws out of the bracket I made. Then I measure the piece and move the gauge so it reads -whatever. Say the piece is 0.872, I move to -0.872. Then I hit zero again and move the gauge back up until it reads 0.872 and put the screws back in. Very easy and I've had to do it once when the batteries needed changing. With the Wixey yes it was a little easier, but I had to calibrate much more frequently because the calibration would jump. Same with another Wixey I had on a different planer and same with the Wixey I had on my TS. They replaced one, then said there must be static in my shop. I've read other reports of the same problem. I have not seen that issue with the iGaging so they must filter the "static."

It would be easy to do something similar with the setup like Supermax uses.

It would be awesome if iGaging would come out with a unit you could set like a clock. It would just be a matter of running a piece and adjusting the cal up or down to match.

[Dick Mahany]

The iGaging unit for $30 caught my attention. It may be just as cost effective to buy an iGaging unit as it will be to rig up the wixey. Does anyone have the instruction and installation manual for one, or a link to them? I'd like to know how it zeroes and what they suggest for installation before I slap my money down for one. I really like how the Wixey unit zeroes, but I'm always open to (cost effective) options.

The iGaging manual ca be found here:

http://eacmedia.net/manuals/IGAGING/424-0160.pdf

[Anthony Whitesell]

Anthony, basically it zero's whereever you hit the button. On my J/P I plane a piece and shut down the machine. I zero the gage and pull 2 screws out of the bracket I made. Then I measure the piece and move the gauge so it reads -whatever. Say the piece is 0.872, I move to -0.872. Then I hit zero again and move the gauge back up until it reads 0.872 and put the screws back in. Very easy and I've had to do it once when the batteries needed changing. With the Wixey yes it was a little easier, but I had to calibrate much more frequently because the calibration would jump. Same with another Wixey I had on a different planer and same with the Wixey I had on my TS. They replaced one, then said there must be static in my shop. I've read other reports of the same problem. I have not seen that issue with the iGaging so they must filter the "static.".

The wixey I have has a nice cal method. Run a piece through the sander or planer, then lift the "ruler" section and put the piece under and hit ZERO. then remove the piece. The ruler then moves while the gauge stays still and thus the reading starts at the thickness of the board. I can forsee two issues with this. First the scale is spring loaded. Second, any chips stuck below the scale will offset the reading.

The method you described is not too convincing for me to make the purchase.


It would be easy to do something similar with the setup like Supermax uses.

I wanted to rebuff this statement but I thought about it more. I played with the second wixey gauge I have to see if I could make it work like the SuperMax photo and you have to mount the gauge upside down in order to have the display fixed and the ruler move. With the gauge moving and ruler fixed, the gauge moves to the top to increase the reading. If you fix the gauge and move the ruler, the top of the ruler moves away from the top of the gauge and would decrease the reading as the open (head) rises. If you mount it upside down and fix the gauge in place, then the "top" of the ruler will get closer to the "top" of the gauge, thus increasing the reading as the head rises.


It would be awesome if iGaging would come out with a unit you could set like a clock. It would just be a matter of running a piece and adjusting the cal up or down to match.

Ditto there. I would love that!

[Alan Lightstone]

How much of a difference is there in the thickness of the different grit sandpapers?

Personally, I use a digital height gauge to determine the thickness of the wood being sanded, and place it on my table saw top. A little more work moving the pieces, but I think more accurate than calipers.

I'm intrigued by this. Think this may be on the to do list.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I don't there there's much difference between 150 and 220, but there's a whopping difference between 36 and 80. I just used my calipers on the 5 grits I have downstairs.

[Scott Engle]

Matt,

I put an iGaging DRO on my Jet 2244 last year. I originally put one on my JJP12 combo machine that replaced a Jet DRO that was too small to read. The display is much larger and easily moved anywhere I want it with its magnetic base. It works great. Hope the pics help.

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Dick:

That is a very clean installation. What do you think about this iGagaing unit for the Jet 22-44?
http://www.anytimesale.com/servlet/the-250/6%22-VER-DIGITAL-DRO/Detail

Scott

[John Coloccia]

I thought about putting one on mine, but I've found there's enough flex in the whole system that it would really just serve as a rough guide, anyway. I can put the same piece through multiple times, without changing any settings, and it gets thinner each time. I end up checking anything I'm thicknessing with calipers, or if I want it rough I just mark a line on the edge and sand down to the line.

[Darren Albert]

I zero the gage and pull 2 screws out of the bracket I made. Then I measure the piece and move the gauge so it reads -whatever. Say the piece is 0.872, I move to -0.872. Then I hit zero again and move the gauge back up until it reads 0.872 and put the screws back in. Very easy and I've had to do it once when the batteries needed changing.

I have these scales on a Smithy 3 in one metal mill/drill/lathe and wanted to put one on my woodmaster 725 but couldnt think up a good way to zero it, you just solved that! Time to go figure out some mounts.

These scales work best when they have very short and ridgid mounts, I used 1/8" and 1/4" aluminum angle to mount them on my Smithy and they are very acurate.