books on the rotary table ?

[ronan walshParticipant @ronanwalsh98054]

[ronan walshParticipant @ronanwalsh98054]

Are there any books on the rotary table ? I know there are several on the dividing head but information on the rotary table seems to be scarce. When i was serving my time we done a fair amount of work on the dividing head, what it could do, the maths involved etc, when i asked about the rotary table i was told that in production situations and general commercial engineering that cnc had made them nearly obsolete. A friend gave me an old table a year or two back and i have amused myself cutting arcs etc on bits of scrap, but i feel there is a gap in my knowledge of the thing.

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Cutting arcs…yeah thats pretty much wat they are for beyond the “dividing” function

[NJHParticipant @njh]

You can, of course, get attachments for some tables to allow dividing. See HERE

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Go to this page on ARC's web site.

**LINK**

Scroll down until you find the first rotary table advert and just above the price list is a clickable link to download a free guide.

John S.

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Ronan,
You can use a rotary table to cut gears or drill a number of equaly spaced holes without dividing plates. Just divide 360 (The number of degrees in a circle.) by the number of teeth (Or holes) you want. For example if you wanted a 33 tooth gear 360/33 = 10.90909 Deg Most rotary tables are marked in degrees, minutes and seconds so you neet to convert the decimal value to this format.
So 0.90909 degreed is 60 * 0.90909 minutes = 54.5454 Then 0.5454 minutes is 0.5454 * 60 seconds = 32.724 seconds. You could use a spreadsheet to do the calculation and list all the table positions.
In the example you would cit the first tooth with the table set to 0 deg 0 min, 0 sec. for the second tooth move the table to 10 deg, 54 min, 33 sec (32.742 rounded to nearest second) For the third tooth set the table to 21 deg, 49 min, 5 sec. And so on. You are more likely to make errors using this method than dividing plates. Here is some information on rotary tables that you may find useful.

Les.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

You can also use tham for non regular spacings such as a series of radial holes and tangental surfaces. The part below was done with the R?T vertical then rotated for the two angled faces and the four different angles for the holes then laid on its back for the curves all of which radiate from the same centre point

 

Edited By JasonB on 25/06/2013 10:01:46

[John McNamaraParticipant @johnmcnamara74883]

Hi All

Below is a link to a spreadsheet I made up to calculate divisions using a rotary table in degrees or degrees minutes and seconds.

**LINK**

Just enter the number of degrees to divide…. 360 for gears but you can divide a smaller arc.
Also enter the nu,mber of divisions.
The sheet is smart enough to only show the settings needed, much easier to read. and smaller to print out and have by the machine to tick off.

Regards
John

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

I do loads of jobs on my (home made) rotary table as its much more rigid than my (home made) dividing head. The handle is graduated to 1/10 of a degree and I find that accurate enough. Any technique that works with a dividing head can be applied to a rotary table, if you add dividing plates to the handle.

Neil

Examples of rotary table tasks:

Gear cutting-

Profile milling (also works for cams)

Co-ordinate drilling, milling and shaping-

More milling to shape-

[ronan walshParticipant @ronanwalsh98054]

Thanks for the replies and links everyone, the rotary table is just something i have never seemed to use somehow. I have one now and just wondered how to do some of the trickier work, cam milling for instance ?

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

If you mean cam milling as in IC engines then you need to map out the lift at say every degree.

Take a look at this link.

**LINK**

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Posted by John Stevenson on 25/06/2013 23:05:37:

If you mean cam milling as in IC engines then you need to map out the lift at say every degree.

That rather depends on the cam cutting method, you can do it without the calculations if its a short cam. With the R/T laid flat and the work held in a 3 jaw just wind the handle in approx increments, no fine setting of the cutter for every increment

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Call me dense Jason,. buty how does that give you anything but a completely random cam profile?

Neil

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