digital readout for wide belt sander

[lou sansone]

good evening ww's

I got a couple of these little wixey guages and attached them to a couple of my machines ( one is a 37 inch timesavers single head widebelt and the other is a casidei 24 inch planer ). pretty easy to install and a big help on both of them. I still work with a dial caliper for my work, but at least I know where I am at with either machine. they have a +/- resolution of 0.005" which is fine. I don't see why they could not have better resolution, but that 3rd digit just seems to toggle back and forth.
For the planer it is not as critical to have the exact measurement before starting ( I can hog off an easy .175 " without any problem ) but with the wide belt, you better be close to the opening size or your going to blow a belt off. These little guages will allow me to get the widebelt in the ball park and then proceed from there. I usually run 120 grit and limit the removal to 0.020 or less per pass. I don't have an amp meter on the timesavers, but from experience, 20 mill seems about it for 120 grit.
lou

[Jim Becker]

Those worked out very nicely, Lou. Even if you still check with the caliper, I agree that the readout is handy to "get very close", especially with eyes that don't see as well up close as they used to. ;)

(I noticed today that it's time for new batteries in the DRO on my planer...)

[Russ Massery]

Cool Lou, The SWMBO got me one for my planer for Christmas.

[J.R. Rutter]

I have one on my planer as well. We find it to be very accurate. I've got Pro-scales on shapers (0.001 readability), and that 3rd digit wants to jump as soon as you tighten the lock down anyway.

I just saw that Beal Tool has a gauge with remote display option. But you can't beat the price on the Wixey...