DRO scale broken

Hi, Group,

You have heard it said that you should always mount your DRO scale on
the rear of the table, even at the cost of some Y travel, to keep it
safe from things dropping on it.

This weekend, I was moving a drill press on a wheeled stand, sure
enough, it hit some bump on the floor, and tipped off, fell on the
floor, and on the way down hit the corner of the DRO scale on my Moore
jig borer. There is indeed a glass scale inside those aluminum housings
when you pry the rubber lips apart, and mine is in fragments, smashed by
the reader head.

This is an older Acu-rite III system, Acu-rite can replace the scale for
about $460. usd (it is the narrow one, reading in .0001 increments)
There is also a $50. plug needed to connect the nine pin plug to the six
pin hole.

Do you think it is worth pouring this kind of money into an old system?
Either Sony or Acurite has a 20% trade in allowance for old systems, and
I could get a new box with some modern features, instead of patching
onto what's there, which is pretty much just x and y readings. Also,
with Sony, I get away from that silly glass scale businsess.

Opinions appreciated

David M. Munro