Two Modifications To A Chester Champion Mill/Drill

While the Chester Champion is as good as any in its class, it has one major drawback.

- Peter Russell

Anyone who has used a round column mill/drill will know that if you unlock the head to raise or lower it, you have no way of knowing how far it has moved axially. Spotting a part with a centre drill and then having to raise the head to accommodate a long drill, using an edge finder and then having to raise or lower the head for a different length tool, the machine will lose registration every time. I had been suffering with this problem ever since I bought one and was always trying to think up ways of getting round it but never quite solving it.

You do tend to put up with these shortcomings (or at least I do) until there comes a point at which things have got to change.

It came to a head when I forgot to lock the head after moving it and made a right old mess of a part I was working on. At about the same time my home-made DRO - a Schumatech DRO 350 - decided not to display an axis when I needed it most. This was the point at which something had to be done.

Fitting a Chinese DRO and scales

My home-made DRO (made from a kit) had been giving me grief for quite a while. Every now and then it would fail to display one or more axes, usually when I was in the middle of a job! Despite many years as an electronics engineer I am ashamed to say that I never could find the fault.

I had a look around at DRO’s and found a Chinese one which came with three glass scales at a reasonable price, so I ordered one.

Well, after a week or so the new DRO arrived. I plugged it all up and checked it out on the bench. All the axes displayed properly so all seemed well. All I needed to do was install it. It was getting a bit late in the day so I thought I’d put off the installation and get down to reading the instructions first.

Help!

I read the instruction book and I was really no wiser. We’ve all heard of ‘Chinglish’ but this takes the biscuit! How about this: