After spending much time on different sites, I decided to make this one my home for discussing machining topics. Hope that is good with "y'all":cheers:
So I decided to put some DRO on my SX2 after loosing track of where I was and taking off 1/16" too much. :violin:
Eventually, I will CNC this thing, so I wanted to cheap out. I bought a set of iGaging scales and took one apart. Figured I'd show some pics of the guts:
One you remove the hot glue and the mini-USB connector, you'll have access to the four white screws that hold down the scale, and the four black screws that hold down the PCB. I found that if you tighten the black screws too much, you increase drag as the encoder slides along the scale. I did not find the same to be true for the white screws. Of course, I didn't crank on either of them.
Now, in this next pic, you can see that as the scales changes direction, the scale contact is pushed in the direction that the scale is moving. There's about 3/8" of play. I'm not an expert on this type of scale technology, but my instincts tell me that play is not a good thing. The more consistent everything is between capacitance readings, the more precise the readings will be. So I decided to add a dab of hot glue on one side.
I thought it couldn't hurt. Everything seems to be working fine. The PCB does a good job of holding everything steady, so this might not improve anything. But if you look closely at the PCB where it touches the scale contact, you can see sign of rubbing, which indicates slight play. These are brand new as well, so only 5 minutes or so worth of use to test it out.