aftermarket DRO on a MM FS41 Classic J/P ?

[Michael Mahan]

anyone place a digital read out on a MiniMax FS41 Classic Jointer / Planer ?
Pro or Cons ?
the Hammer A3-41 has a analog one as a option
I see the Wixey on sale at WoodPeckers & Incra once in a while
they look fragile :confused:
entertaining a MM purchase

[Stephen Cherry]

proscale is having a sale
http://www.proscale.com/onsale/onsale.htm

[Art Mann]

I bought the old style Wixey digital planer gauge (harder to read) when they first came out several years ago. They do look a little flimsy but mine has worked reliably with some hard use. The only maintenance I have ever done is to replace the battery occasionally and once in a great while I wipe the slider down with a small amount of WD-40 to keep it working freely. I am still a little surprised at the accuracy with which I can thickness lumber. +/- 0.005" as verified with digital calipers is no problem at all. I would recommend highly if the new version works as well as the original.

Edit: I just looked at the link to the Proscale unit and I can't see paying that much money when the Wixey works just fine.

[Michael Mahan]

I bought the old style Wixey digital planer gauge (harder to read) when they first came out several years ago. They do look a little flimsy but mine has worked reliably with some hard use. The only maintenance I have ever done is to replace the battery occasionally and once in a great while I wipe the slider down with a small amount of WD-40 to keep it working freely. I am still a little surprised at the accuracy with which I can thickness lumber. +/- 0.005" as verified with digital calipers is no problem at all. I would recommend highly if the new version works as well as the original.

Edit: I just looked at the link to the Proscale unit and I can't see paying that much money when the Wixey works just fine.

yeah , even if you busted that Wixey smacking it with a board & had to replace , it wouldn't be as painful in the wallet as that Proscale even if it's on sale
Pro-Scale - that's expensive !~

[David Kumm]

yeah , even if you busted that Wixey smacking it with a board & had to replace , it wouldn't be as painful in the wallet as that Proscale even if it's on sale
Pro-Scale - that's expensive !~

Worth it thought IMO. The real deal. Dave

[Michael Mahan]

Worth it thought IMO. The real deal. Dave

can you explain further , I don't mind getting a better product if it is actually better .

[Stephen Cherry]

one benefit is that you can actually calibrate it. cut a piece, measure with a digital calibrator, push the plus or minus button on the indicator to make it right.

The wixey uses a system where you place a cut piece in it and I could not get it to work right.

[David Kumm]

I've used both. One Wixey has been very good, no complaints on my Delta DC 33. I had a couple others that were inconsistent and not very repeatable. Couple of years ago and elecronics get better every minute. The proscale is a true industrial accessory, like Sikko. I have one on my 299 planer and WB sanders. The WB unit will store several numbers referenced off each other. Nice on a WB with multiple heads or even just for multiple grits or with and without platen. They set and adjust easier and you can get the absolute that holds its settings when the battery goes dead. Incremental is a little cheaper and you have to reset although that just means cut of plane a board and set the number. I'm good with Wixey or equal but prefer the proscale for the big machines I plan to keep and use forever. Dave

[mreza Salav]

I have a wixey installed on my FS350. I don't use it as often as I like. The only use I make out of it is when I'm done planing a bunch I set it to zero so that in case I'm short piece I can bring it up to the exact thickness again. Other than that most cases I don't care if it is 0.761 or 0.740 or somewhere near.

[Michael Mahan]

one benefit is that you can actually calibrate it. cut a piece, measure with a digital calibrator, push the plus or minus button on the indicator to make it right.

The wixey uses a system where you place a cut piece in it and I could not get it to work right.

OK that I find very interesting & worth the extra costs , the wixely as I said looks "Fragile"

If the Pro is beefy I'm interested . their web site is a little vague so the 10" model would work on MM planer ?

[Mike Heidrick]

Cant you just zero out the wixey?

[Stephen Cherry]

Cant you just zero out the wixey?

Yes, but where do you zero it? If you cut a board of zero thickness, and zero the planer, you've damaged your machine. You can't really take the planer to zero to zero it. The proscale lets you calibrate at points other than zero.

For example, my saw has the felder version of the siko digital fence, and it's easy enough to bring the fence near the blade, and set zero when they touch, but if you really want it to be accurate, you cut a test peice then measure it, then set an offset to make the indication exactly equal the test piece.

My accurate tech digital fence (I think it's called digistop) lets you just hit plus and minus buttons to make the indication equal the test cut.

This becomes more important with a planer because you can't go to zero with the machine.

THere is a possibility that I'm missing something with the calibration of the wixey though.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

Ok, curiosity got the better of me. I just popped over to Wixey where they have the manuals online and indeed their is a procedure to calibrate the meter without trying to find a magic zero setting for the machine. Basically they use a piece of the board which has been processed to calibrate. When you read the procedure, remind yourself that the meter during installation is calibrated to 0 between the sensor and the meter.

[Curt Harms]

Here is what I did to install a DRO on a Jet JJP-12 but the concept should work on other machines as well.
277798

The oval wooden thing is actually two jaws with sandpaper glued to the internal facing surfaces. To calibrate I move the strap about 1/8" above the wooden clamp assembly, move the table up so it cuts about 1/8" thick stock. Plane a piece of scrap and measure with a digitial caliper. Zero the DRO then loosen the clamping bolts and slide the metal strap down until the DRO reading equals the thickness of the planed stock and tighten the clamping bolts. I sometimes tweak a little and can get to about .002" repeatability which is close enough for my purposes. The DRO is an iGaging 12" unit. It uses two cr2032 coin batteries and is not a battery hog at all. I've had this for probably a couple years and haven't changed the batteries yet. And it maintains its calibration very well, unlike an older Wixey unit which had the .20" skip issue that I was unable to adjust out.

[Art Mann]

I just calibrated my Wixey a few days ago. I waited too long to replace the battery and it lost its calibration. The calibration procedure takes about a minute. I can't imagine an easier or more accurate way to calibrate a gauge like that.

[Erik Loza]

I have hands-on exprience with Wixey and and with SIKO DRO's. The Wixey was fine, though not as sturdy as the SIKO but then again, it is only a third the price. However, it did appear plenty sturdy to me for use on any planer in a home shop. Based on feedback from customers, the ProScale would probably fit somewhere between the two in terms of price and build quality but I have never actually laid hands on one. I think any of them would be fine, so it's just a matter of what someone wanted to spend.

My 2-cents.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Stephen Cherry]

Ok, curiosity got the better of me. I just popped over to Wixey where they have the manuals online and indeed their is a procedure to calibrate the meter without trying to find a magic zero setting for the machine. Basically they use a piece of the board which has been processed to calibrate. When you read the procedure, remind yourself that the meter during installation is calibrated to 0 between the sensor and the meter.

Yup, I had one on my planer, and when I went through the calibration procedure, the measurement that ended up on the display was not what I measured with my mitutoyo and wixey digital calipers. This earned it a one way ticket off the machine. Maybe others peoples experiences are different. I have wixey digital height gauge, and calipers and like them, but I can't say that about the planer gauge.

I think that I gauging can calibrate off of zero though, but their instructions are a little cryptic.

[Joe Jensen]

I started with the Basic Wixey WR510 planer readout on my PM100 12" planer and on my PM 24" dual drum sander. I found them to be very cheaply made and after 6 months of light usage one wouldn't hold it's position calibration. I replaced that one with the newer larger Wixey WR550. It's dramatically better made and more flexible. I have since replaced the other cheap Wixey with another WR550. The WR550 uses a standard ethernet cable to connect the readout with the sensor and I ordered different cables that are just the right length with right angle connectors to really clean up the installation. I highly recommend the new WR550 and I can't recommend the cheaper Wixey WR510 planer readout. The cost difference on Amazon in minor, $51 versus $69...joe

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w99/AZEngineer/Planer/image_zps6594d318.jpg (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/AZEngineer/media/Planer/image_zps6594d318.jpg.html)
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w99/AZEngineer/Planer/image_zps2751cf9c.jpg (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/AZEngineer/media/Planer/image_zps2751cf9c.jpg.html)
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w99/AZEngineer/Planer/image_zps8cf5d4b1.jpg (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/AZEngineer/media/Planer/image_zps8cf5d4b1.jpg.html)
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w99/AZEngineer/Planer/image_zps9ca800d5.jpg (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/AZEngineer/media/Planer/image_zps9ca800d5.jpg.html)
http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w99/AZEngineer/Planer/image_zps00ab5d45.jpg (http://s174.photobucket.com/user/AZEngineer/media/Planer/image_zps00ab5d45.jpg.html)

[Michael Mahan]

http://www.woodpeck.com/planerdigital.html WoodPecker has the WR550 on Sale (68.99) right now till midnite Christmas eve
in fact they have a few different Wixey on sale
Amazon Prime http://www.amazon.com/Wixey-WR550-Remote-Planer-Readout/dp/B0054RJ7AS/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1387733497&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=Wixely+WR550 (69.85 with free 2 day prime shipping )

I think Amazon is matching that WoodPecker price as they usually do & go a few cents lower

[Michael Mahan]

I can't find the Siko model , I found their site but not the planer model
anyone know the ballpark price on one ?

[Michael Mahan]

I started with the Basic Wixey WR510 planer readout on my PM100 12" planer and on my PM 24" dual drum sander. I found them to be very cheaply made and after 6 months of light usage one wouldn't hold it's position calibration. I replaced that one with the newer larger Wixey WR550. It's dramatically better made and more flexible. I have since replaced the other cheap Wixey with another WR550. The WR550 uses a standard ethernet cable to connect the readout with the sensor and I ordered different cables that are just the right length with right angle connectors to really clean up the installation. I highly recommend the new WR550 and I can't recommend the cheaper Wixey WR510 planer readout. The cost difference on Amazon in minor, $51 versus $69...joe


Very Clean Install there Joe !
i like how you tacked down the cables
ThanX Big time on the photos :D