Steve wrote: I have been very impressed and pleased with the G4003G lathe. One modification I made to my G4003G was the 'cast iron stand with extended base'. This is the first import lathe that I have ever seen that the stand or base was too tall! I also added an inexpensive coolant system and DRO (digital readout).

After a lot of shopping for a 12x metal lathe I decided on the new Grizzly G4003G Gunsmith Lathe. I've owned a lot of import machines and I have to say that the fit and finish on the G4003G is the best I've owned. The lathe was very well crated and I had no shipping damage at all. All controls are silky smooth and backlash is very minimal. The motor runs very smooth and for a gearhead lathe it is very quiet. Well I took the plunge and add a DRO system to my Grizzly G4003G metal lathe and could not be happier! 

After many hours of searching the internet and all the machining groups I decided to go with the DRO system shown in the photos below. I was not able to find much information on adding a DRO system to the Grizzly 12 x 36 metal lathe so I've included details and pictures on how I installed mine below.

Unpacking the DRO

The DRO was shipped by air parcel from Singapore and arrive in two weeks. Inside the big carton box were two separate boxes containing the two linear glass scales and the display console, power cord & user's manual. The display console was wrapped in plastic and the LED display areas have protective plastic over it. Also includes a aluminum mounting arm for the display console.

I received two scales, one 6" travel and one 36" travel. The blue plastic clips are to secure the  reading heads during shipping. These have to be removed before installation. Also included but not pictured:

• Two chip / coolant scale covers.
• One bracket for mounting the X axis scale.

Getting Started

The best advise I can give is lay the parts out and take your time in determining the best locations for the scales and display. Take into account where most of the chips fall and where any accessories bolt on such as a follow rest. Also look closely to make sure drilling and tapping does not interfere with anything. Position the display away from flying chips and take into account any glare from lighting.

I started out by determining the placement of the "X" axis scale. The easiest place would have been on the front of the compound slide shown above. I decided against this since it's directly under the cutting tool and this is also where the follow rest attaches to the front of the saddle.

 I chose to attach the X axis scale to the rear of the compound slide shown above. One problem attaching here is that the saddle does not have a flush mounting area shown with the red arrow. This is where the reading head would attach to. I decided to remove the saddle and mill this area flush with the compound slide.
( Detailed information on installing the X axis scale can be found in Part B of the guide.)

The Z axis scale was pretty straight forward and placed below the removable gap shown above. 
( Detailed information on installing the X-axis and Z-axis scale can be found in Part B of the guide.)

Comment

I have not had the DRO system installed very long on my Grizzly G4003G lathe but so far I am very impressed. I make a lot of parts with multiple OD's that can be very time consuming. I would have to stop and measure four or five times on each part. With the DRO I can produce these same parts in a fraction of the time. I do take light cuts on the finishing pass to ensure close tolerances are kept.

The DRO includes a user manual that does not go into great detail but it does cover the basics.
Like anything new it took me a few times to figure out what I was doing! I am still learning all the features and I will add more soon.

Thanks to Steve for allowing me to use his article and photos for this guide.

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Note: The article written by Steve Bedair can be found on his website (bedair.org) and I edited it so as to comply with eBay policy.

Date: 7 Dec 2007