Anyone have one?
What do you do with it?
I want one have been looking on ebay for a while.
I'd like to be able to mill circles or index holes and their positions
However, they are expensive and heavy!
A 12 incher can weigh 150~200 lbs and can run $175~$850 or more
How do you get a 200 lb item on and off your mill?
How big do you need to go and why?
I got my eye on a seven inch horizontal rotary table that is only 25 lbs.
Just thinking of what I can portably get on and off the mill is my main criteria.
The most usefull uses I've seen with rotary tables are to make your own drilled and slotted rotors, drill out rims for new lug sizes/patterns, axel splines, and any other job that requires drilling some holes in a circle.
You use a ceiling mounted hoist, a buddy, or a forklift to lift a 200lb item onto them.
be careful with what size you get and what size your mill is, you might have to get a riser for your mill head to use any long drill bits, or if you have chucks with R8/jt adapters some times they take needed space forcing you to use a collet which might not fit your drill size......
I guess what Im getting at is the knee has a limited travel when you fill it up with tooling (vice,angle blocks, divider....) you loose space for work and have to get creative
i have an 8" rotary table for my small cnc mill. i haven't used it for slotting or drilling rotors yet but that is one of the main reasons i bought it. it can be mounted horizontal or vertical. i got a 4 jaw chuck and tailstock for it also. i have used it for fluting rifle barrels and making muzzle brakes as well as a few other things. my table isn't long enough as is to spline axle shafts. i plan on making a false table to sit on top of the table inorder to fit longer parts. my rotary table must weigh about 100 pounds. i can lift it onto the table by myself but it is a bitch.
I can just barely move our 14" rotary table by myself , but the shelf it sits on is roughly the same height as the mill table so it's just sliding, carrying, sliding, no actual lifting
I've got a 10" or 12" (it's snowing, I don't want to run out and measure) rotary table and a 8" super spacer. I lift them both on and off by hand, but I did build a sturdy waist height shelf to store them and other heavy tooling.
My table is worm gear type and the super spacer is the cheaper type that needs a plate with slots to index. I used the table to make the plate with 30 slots for the spacer so I can spline axle shafts. The table mostly gathers dust now, because I've got a CNC mill. The super spacer still gets used occasionally for splining shafts or holding round work, but that work happens on the CNC now.
Here's the super spacer mounted on my horizontal mill - back when I cut my first splines. http://members.tcq.net/jnutter/1stsplines/photos/photo12.html[img]
They also make super spacers with a worm gear for indexing. I'd suggest you get one of those. They look just like the one I have, but they have a crank for the worm. You can use these horizontally or vertically, with out without a chuck and with the worm or a slot plate. They are a bit thicker than regular old rotary table, but I think the versatility is worth it.
JR, I have a 10 or 12" horizontal rotory table you can borrow if you want to test drive one. I can get it to Burbank on the 20th of this month (friend visiting and his shop is in Burbank)
Its just sitting not getting used (not for sale though) just let me know. If nothing else you can get a feel for one and figure out better what features/size you might need/want.
( I didnt get a chance to meet you at KOH but I did keep Marilyn updated on your status while you guys were broke on the course. I spent my day listening to the radio at basecamp with Dave. Marlyn was sitting in her car knitting :laughing
Chris:cool2:
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