My castings came from College Engineering Supply. The parts were still on their website the last time I looked.

I guess one approach is to buy a Chinese one and treat it as a casting kit?

This one came as a kit from Model Engineering Services – the same people who sold the Quorn castings. MES are sadly now defunct, I don't know if anybody has taken over the patterns, it's a very solid piece of kit..

And, yes, items do sometimes slip when machining – as evidenced by that slot

HTH (but not much)

Rod

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Thanks for posting that, Rod … It saves me wondering where I had seen it.

Sad loss, M.E.S.

MichaelG.

I think Ivan and Mike Law still have the patterns for the MES products, but I don't think they are planning on going back into production.

Neil

Neil

Ed,

Since you've decided to go down the reworking route, it might be helpful for you to have a look at Stefan Gotteswinter's YouTube feed. He's just uploaded a video showing how he has approached this very procedure. Only part one, so far, but interesting nevertheless. His other projects are an easy way to lose a few hours as well! Just search for his name on YouTube and you'll find it.

John

P.S. For scraping aficionados, he uses a power tool to take the hard graft out of scraping the base flat!

I have the 559 castings from CES so not as robust as the one shown in your second link. I wasn't too bothered about a scale as I plan on measuring the angle each time it is set and clamped.

Edited By Michael Checkley on 26/04/2016 10:05:57

Hope this has some relevance, This is a tilting table I made a few years back. Although its from scratch and not a kit. It is all Meehanite, except the threaded pivots and their nuts [EN24t] and the threaded inserts [EN24T @ M8] I decided to have a go at hand scraping the plate surface after it was milled, although it took 2 days I feel it was worth it as it is flat to within 0.005mm anywhere. The scraping was actually quite enjoyable but not something I would want to do full time !! It tilts 95deg either side of horizontal and as you would expect from something that weighs in at a shade over 68kg's VERY rigid. The pivots pins are 24mm Ø threaded 1.25mm pitch [ EN 24T] and are 1 left hand thread and 1 right hand thread. The inserts are 25mm ctc and are also EN24T they have a flange on the rear and when they were all pulled home tight sit approx 0.25mm below the surface. It doesn't ever move from where it is set regardless of how heavy a cut is taken. Were I to make another one, I would design in a tilting mechanism as you must ensure you have a good hold of it when you loosen the pivot nuts!! If not, then you will have around about 35kg's of Meehanite plate either tilting away from you or toward you [and you don't want any digits between the table and the milling machine bed ] if you don't have control over it, or else its a trip to the KRANKENHAUS !! This genuine Meehanite is a sheer joy to machine and work with, although very dirty. Hope this has been of interest.

Cheers.

Here is the tilting table that I use on an elliott U2 mill, it is 6"x 8" and has 3 T slots, I like the T slots better than plain slots, it is quite old but is in nice condition.

Richard.

How about a tilt table that mounts in a vice?

Tom Lipton at Ox Tools shows a version of his mini pallet that can be used as a tilt table by simply bolting a piece of round bar to one end.

Thanks Norman

I agree Richard, T slots are much easier to use than plain slots. When I devised my "alternative to a four jaw chuck. **LINK** using a T slotted base. I realised when complete that I now also had a T slotted face plate, so much easier to use in most cases than conventional faceplates. Also, being heavier, easier to balance.

Harold