On drums...

Hey Greg i just found this thread and i might be able to help on the DD repair. If you have a harbor freight close by where you live you can get a .001" dial indicator and switch it out. These are pretty cheap about $10.00 or so. I'm not going to guarantee the indicator is as nice as the one that is in the DD but i have a DD and i'm not all that impressed with the gage.

I literally have used thousands of dial indicators and they go bad all the time in the work environment that i'm in. Using a cheaper indicator should do the trick, it's not like you are making a roller that measures in the millionth or an inch(.000001"). The smallest dial increment i have used it a 10 millionth gage and there is no need for something like that for tuning a head, .001" is just fine and that is the increment that is used on the DD.

I must say the digital one sounds interesting to me, i use digial gages at work to measure my product and those gages do meaure down to the millionth.

Gary.

Gary, I hate to admit not understanding, but I have no idea how one would go about switching out a dial indicator.

The digital DD (or DDD) is nice, though I wish the face had been illuminated. Without interior illumination, having good light by which to read it is just as important as it is with the analog (ADD). Battery life may have been behind the decision to eschew lighting, but it shouldn't have been.

I expected the DDD to solve one of the problems of the ADD, that is, is parallax distortion, requiring your eyeball to be in plane with the top of the drumhead to read the Dial properly. The DDD requires the same eye to drumhead relationship, because the readout becomes obscure when viewed from an angle. So not a big win there, and I think they could have solved that by inner illumination, too.

The ADD, since its needle moves across the arc, allows finer readings than the DDD, which only reports whole numbers and nothing in between. That becomes very apparent when you twist the drum key through 15º of Link threading and the readout doesn't change. Sure, you can learn to interpolate, but that requires a lot more key action to discover the brackets. More increments would have been better.

Still, I like it. I'm not sure that the real value of the DD lies in perfection of readings, since I always have to fine tune by ear afterward.

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Gregory

That's a good question. It doesn't seem to have any kind of clamping device until you look at the sticker. Rub your finger over the label on the base and you will feel a little indentation. I'm sure that is where the set screw is located then you can replace it with another gage. Pretty good idea of the manufacturer to make you think it can't be adjusted or removed. Also check your little tip, it may have come loose which will keep it from repeating.

I do like the idea of an illuminated gage face.

Gary.

Oh no. They are the Chinese version, with a proprietary face.

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-inch-tra ... r-623.html

So DD is a stop on a UPS route. Gauges, bases and a bit of printed tape come in for delivery, gauges are screwed into the bases and a piece of tape covering the set screw, and UPS picks 'em up again. If Harbor Freight is charging $11, what do you supposes the wholesale price is? The digital gauge is $27.

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Gregory

Let us know if you go with the digital one, i'd like to see the results of it.

Gary.

Hey, Gary. A look at the photos on Harbor Freight's webpage suggests the Harbor Freight and DrumDial gauges are one and the same. If so, see the review four posts up.

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Gregory

Hey, Gary. I picked up a Harbor Freight dial indicator today, and tried it. You were right that it plugs into the DD base. There is a drawback: The spring tension is stronger in the DD version, and so it deflects the head more than the Harbor Freight model. Where the DD deflects to 75, the HF version only shows 90. That's not enough deflection to work with. I'm guessing the spring in the DD is a proprietary item.

Wrote to DD the other day with my critique of the digital version (should be back lit, and not enough feedback on the analog version).. I suggested tenths of point readout would be more useful. Got a message back, saying that in March, a lighted version would be available, and that he was going to begin work on tenths.

That's the latest.

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Gregory

Interesting on the spring tension and variations in reading. That's a lot more than i expected it to be. It is nice to see that DD is responding to concerns and desire to upgrade their product.

Gary.