Digital height scale

[Darcy Warner]

Looking for a digital height/thickness scale that is easy to hide the parts for.

Like to have the readout only visible.

[Jim Becker]

Subscribing to learn something.

My gut feeling is that the "hiding" part may be difficult in an after-market situation with most machines.

[Darcy Warner]

Subscribing to learn something.

My gut feeling is that the "hiding" part may be difficult in an after-market situation with most machines.

Need to look through the manual for my SAC planer and see if it shows anything for that scale. I can't find any of the typical scale stuff anywhere on the machine.

[Jim Becker]

For hiding the sensor, you'd need to find a place internal to the machine that moves up and down with the bed but is still hidden or reasonably hidden. When I had one on my J/P it was mounted externally, but as I think about it, it may have been possible to mount it in the cabinet tied to the column under the table...I've never opened things up down there, however.

[Darcy Warner]

My customer would love a digital scale, but doesn't want to take away from the look of the machine.

[Jim Becker]

My customer would love a digital scale, but doesn't want to take away from the look of the machine.
Darn customers! They always want to challenge... :)

I can appreciate their desire for sure. It just may be difficult to pull off on a machine that didn't incorporate something like this in the design. Burying an aftermarket sensor inside may also make it hard to service if it gets, um..."messed up" for whatever strange reason down the road.

[Tony Leonard]

Another approach might be to find you you like...take it apart...extend wires, make new cases, etc. I've done similar. If you have access to a 3D printer, it would be easy to make new boxes for the guts. mounting pieces, etc. Sounds fun!

To be honest, I have a Wixey? on my planer and, while I do use it, I end up using my calipers to get past resolution it offers. Especially when trying to match thicknesses and such. I probably wouldn't buy another one. The newer models do work well though and the battery life is much better. Thy have a remote sensor unit available.
http://www.wixey.com/remote-planer/index.html

Tony

[David Kumm]

Darcy, look at Fiama. they have a distributor here who I've heard is great to work with. Dave