Regarding the vertex 4" I don't think that is going to work. Way too big to even mount on the boring table.

If you are not planning a mill soon you should maybe start thinking along the lines of a verical slide mounted milling spindle and use the head-stock of the lathe as your rotary table. This would allow you to typically mill curves on con rod ends and drill PCD holes for cylinder covers and the like once you have sorted a simple dividing arrangement for the head-stock. However if you don't want to go to all that trouble an just need to round the ends of components use filing buttons instead. There are more ways of skinning a cat etc . . .

In general the less equipment you have the older the techniques you have to pursue. Find out what Model Engineers were doing in the 1950's.

regards Martin

Greetings, James

Others may disagree [this being a forum], but here's my opinion:

1. The HV-4 is too big, and hefty, to use on the Myford Vertical Slide
2. A very simple, low profile, RT may work, BUT:
3. Consider the alternative of putting a milling spindle on the slide, and holding the work in the lathe chuck, or on e face-plate.
4. Find a copy of the old M.A.P. book "Milling in the Lathe" [by Edgar T. Westbury] … it's a 'gold mine' of ideas.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 13/10/2015 09:02:44

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James,

Before discounting the idea … have a look a Roderick's post on this thread.

MichaelG.

I'm about to make a powered spindle for use in several modes. it's currently in thought mode. I have a motor out of sheep shearer. Might be easy to find these in some parts of the world. It's a 180v motor that's used with a small electronics box to regulate the speed even under load. The output power is 1/8 hp at 2,500rpm, some what more than the small sowing machine motors as they specify the input power on the ones I have seen. It's a permanent magnet motor. These tend to be more efficient than others. The external magnetic field is pretty low but will still collect bits of magnetic metals if I allow them to get to it. Not that this matters really as it's totally sealed. A shield of some sort should minimise that problem.

I also have another rather powerful sheep shearer motor. Bit big for this sort of thing. I assume the smaller motor is for a light weight portable one. It was made by Fracmo, 5 1/4" long and 3" dia, 168w in for 90w out.

There are some different sewing machine motors about now that come complete with an electronic drive. Either fixed speed or variable via an inverter. They appear to be brushless types of some sort and start at about 1/2hp in and are pretty compact. They probably give at least 1/4hp out. I don't fancy the cost but may go that way if the sheep shearer one doesn't work out.

John

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If you make a spindle it's worth mentioning a method of locating bearings. Designs often have a pocket machined in each end. This needs very careful setting up to do each end as the bearings need to be square to each other. The unimat has the bright idea of locating them against circlips. This means that the hole can be bored and the grooves for the circlips added all in one setting. That will make the joh easy.

Another way but it would take some experimentation is to use oil lite bearings. They are porous phosphor bronze impregnated with oil. When they are pressed into a hole they usually come out undersized. ER extension collet holders can be bought pretty cheaply. The od of the plain shank is generally under sized and with some trial and error it might be possible to get the oil lites to size correcty for them. The bearing are cheap so it wouldn't cost much to try.

ER 16 is probably a good size to use. They cover 1 to 10mm. Some people have thought of running them in ball bearings but the under size aspect makes that a bit of a problem. Maybe loctite could be used to centralise them or short sleeves made that size to the bearings and shaft correctly.

John

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James

To return to your original question there are small rotary tables which are supplied as kits for you to make:-

see HERE

I made one some years ago and it is just the job for rounding the ends of coupling rods etc. It is also a pretty rewarding project as, with care, a very smooth and accurate action can be achieved.

I must confess though that, shortly after making the kit, I bought a vertical milling machine and rotary table!

HOWEVER ! I bolted a piece of square BMS to the base of the rotary table hence, if things like the ends of rods need rounding, I just clamp the rotary table in the milling vise by the BMS square and hey presto ! Very quick solution!

Norman

Hi All,

First of all could I say that I have read through the posts on this thread.

Could I ask does anyone have any experience of the small table offered by RDG. the one with the cream base and a 2 3/4" table.

It looks like it may well serve my purposes, very light milling from the head stock using the vertical slide and the same with my potts attachment set up over the lathe cross slide.

Geoff