Subject: DRO Shooting Star

From: [email-masked] (Richard Hal Buxton)
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 23:33:34 GMT

Hi.
There was a question about this dro posted this week and I
answered it because I have purchased the unit for the school
where I teach.  It was suggested that I post how it is going to
the group in general.  As backgroud let me say that I ordered
this unit several months ago and called about once a month
since I ordered it to check on the order.  Shooting Star had
some trouble getting production up and going.  To their credit
they offered a refund if I couldn't wait but I decided to hang
in there because the problems seemed to be real and I have an
idea about how hard it is to get something off the ground.  The
DRO came last week.  The kids and I have the x axis mounted and
are working on the y.  With the x hooked up we have had a
chance to work with the unit.  What a joy!  I have to say that
I have never had a DRO before and outside of the 10 minutes I
had in college, I have never even used on before.  But I can
say this, it is fun and appears to be very accurate.  There
were several parts to the kit.  The main part is the readout
unit.  It appears to be well made.  The numbers are well
lighted and the keypad is easy to work.  It reads to the fourth
decimal place.  Easy to mount.  There are two racks and each
comes with a universtal mounting kit.  This takes a moment or
two of thought as to how you are going to mount the unit on the
individual piece of equipment.  Figuring it out is much harder
than than doing the work.  The basic idea is that the ends of
the racks have a fixture that has standoffs of various
lengths.  You pick what you need.  A bolt is to go through the
fixture and standoff and thread into the machine.  This
requires that you drill and tap some holes into your machine.  I needed
to drill and tap some holes but like anyone would be, I was not in a
big hurry to do so!  As I turned out, where I needed the holes
for the x axis were not in critical areas so I went ahead and
drilled them.  But if I hadn't wanted to, It would have been
easy to epoxy a plate to the machine and drill and tap the
holes in it.  On the y axis it looks like we are going to use a
seperate piece of steel to mount the standoffs and rack on, then
drill some holes in the steel to use existing bolts on the apron. 
 I bet we have eight hours of thinking and one hour of doing!
It should be mounted and rolling by the end of this week. Oh, I
forgot to mention that the racks are easy to cut to length.  A
hacksaw works fine.  Let me also say that I have no connection
to shooting star.  I was interested in a DRO and never had the
money to spend.  At the time, I had the money and the price was
right.  If there is any interest, I will follow this up at the
end of the week.  
Rick
P.S.  My provider does not have a text editor or spell check
for EMail so please overlook typeos!

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From: "Mike Henry" <[email-masked]>
Date: 16 Dec 1996 17:12:51 GMT

Interesting report and I'll be looking forward to hearing more as you
progress.

How much was the DRO?

Richard Hal Buxton <[email-masked]> wrote in article
<[email-masked]>...
> the group in general.  

<snip>

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From: Paul Pierce <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Dec 1996 07:56:12 -0700

Richard Hal Buxton wrote:
> the group in general.  .......
........If there is any interest, I will follow this up at the
> end of the week.

Yay!!!  To me this is the sort of thing this NG should be about.
My DRO is a $12 indicator but I like to hear about others...

> for EMail so please overlook typeos!

Neither does mine.  Guess I could type with WordPerfect and 
transmit that file.  GLad to hear you have a shope class.
Where is it?

-- 
Paul in AJ AZ  NRA Endowment Member

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From: [email-masked] (Robert Lorenz)
Date: 17 Dec 1996 13:05:22 GMT

Thanks for the report, I would like to hear how the next axis goes on and 
how well the DRO is working once you have it all assembled.  Again, thank 
you for taking the time to answer my question and to give us all a report.
   
-
  ROBERT LORENZ  [email-masked]