Mounting vice on rotary table

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

Hi chaps, i purchased a VEVOR rotary table and matching vice. However I have no idea how to mount the vice to the table. The only things that looking like mounting fittings are three bolts that screw into the underside of the vice. Can anyone help. Thanks

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

It would probably help if you provided some information about the vice and table in question otherwise advice will be limited to pure guesswork.

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

I did, VEVOR is the make of both the rotary table and the vice. Don’t know what else I can add.

[Swarf MakerParticipant @swarfmaker85383]

VEVOR sell multiple styles of rotary table and multiple different vices.  No idea what you have. Photos and/or descriptions would help?

 

 

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

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[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

Above are the items, they are listed together so I sort of had the idea that they went together. Looks like I am wrong.

[Swarf MakerParticipant @swarfmaker85383]

Certainly not natively compatible with one another.  As they are both 8″ diameter an adapter plate is not a straightforward solution.

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

OK, so I haven’t used every possible set-up configuration or done every type of job in the world, but I am struggling to think why you would need to mount a vice on a rotary table. Surely, the mounting of a self-centring or collet chuck is a more practical proposition? I say this because I use a rotary table as a dividing device, or for forming radii, and I have clamped larger castings directly to the table. Perhaps you could inform us as to what type of job or work you are proposing to do in a vice mounted on a rotary table so that I may learn something and possibly apply your technique it in my own workshop.

OR, Are you calling the 3-jaw chuck a vice, going by the pictures you have supplied? I am confused now because I can easily tell you how to mount a chuck to a rotary table. Perhaps it’s just me?

[Swarf Maker]

On Swarf Maker Said:

As they are both 8″ diameter an adapter plate is not a straightforward solution.

It makes it easier that the RT has three slots not four, which will likely match the three holes in the back of the chuck.

It is not straightforward by any means, but John Stevenson once posted a clever dodge to deal with this (that needs no intermediate plate, thus minimising height).

You screw a plain-ended stud into the thread in the chuck with a cross hole.

You then make three T-nuts with horizontally-threaded holes in them.

Taper the end of a grub screw and screw it through the T-nut so it engages the cross hole in the chuck stud. The more you screw it in, the taper pulls the chuck downwards and the T-nut upwards securing everything. You can adjust the fit by loosening or tightening the chuck studs by half a turn.

[Chris Crew]

On Chris Crew Said:

…I can easily tell you how to mount a chuck to a rotary table.

In general or specifically for an 8″ chuck that is rear-mounted onto an 8″ table (as is the case here)?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

For a start that is a Chuck you show not  a vice.

No easy way to mount the two together, ideally a through fixing chuck would have worked or a smaller dia chuck that you screw a back plate to and then the exposed part of the backplate can have bolts through it into the tables slots. Something like this 5″ chuck on a 150mm table

Have you asked Vevor?

Oh and I have mounted a milling vice onto my rotary tables a number of times, here are just a few pics for Chris

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

Here are photos of the kit I have. I have a Vertex table to which is bolted a Myford spindle nose plate, available from RDG. This has a 2MT bore with which Myford collets can be used with the collet nose piece. Alternatively, there is a photo of the Vertex spindle which is not bored and which is held from the underside by an Allen screw. I found this to be very unsatisfactory in use as the spindle is liable to shift in the table bore because the screw is not ‘man enough’ to hold it under cutting forces. The plate arrangement, especially when used with Myford collets, works very well. The chuck shown has a back-plate, but a chuck with an integral Myford thread is better because it seats lower on the spindle noes and gives more ‘light’ under the milling cutter.

 

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

I’ve dug this out, not used for some time. It was made to fit a 6″ chuck on a 6″ RT but the holes for the chuck also fit this smaller chuck. When the 6″ chuck is mounted on the adaptor you first fit 3 suitable bolts in the hole then trap them there with the chuck. The scallops allow the bolts to rotate and they can still be tightened with a suitable spanner (wrench for the USA). Once the chuck is on the plate position 3 tee nuts in the slots and lower the bolt ends into place. Go round tightening them until the plate is tight on the RT. I use cap screws to connect the chuck to the plate through counterbored holes. There should be enough play to position the chuck centrally on the RT.

Martin C

[Chris CrewParticipant @chriscrew66644]

“Oh and I have mounted a milling vice onto my rotary tables a number of times, here are just a few pics for Chris”

Jason, thank you for the photos. I must admit I have never had to do a job that made me think of bolting a vice the rotary table, I would have always have thought of another way of doing a job in the lathe or the mill but everybody thinks differently and I will consider your ideas for the future. (Perhaps everyone else does this and it’s just me that has never machined in that way).

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

Thanks chaps. I did know it is a chuck I just had vice on my mind for some reason.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

There is an easy way for a three jaw scroll chuck to fit on a three slot rotary table. Look at the threaded holes in the body of the chuck, there are three at 120 degree spacing. They are usually drilled at points where they can be drilled right through for front mounting. I have drilled about 5 chucks this way and some have now got six mounting points. The front of the chuck can have counterbores for SHCS, which have slightly reduced  diameter heads because of the holes being close to the OD. Then you can make tee nuts to fit in the RT slots and save Z height at the same time.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Given that 3 jaw chucks often don’t centre very well even when attached to a machined register on a lathe I can never understand why people want to use them with rotary tables when it’s very likely the work won’t be held true and there’s no way to adjust it.  Seems to me a better approach is a 4j chuck and a table with 4 slots, then you can get the work trued up.  Also mounting the chuck is easier as 4j types usually have 4 bolt holes at the front.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Amen to that, John

MichaelG.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

If you allow the chuck to float on the rotary table then hold something approx the same dia as the work in your spindle, close the jaws onto that and then nip the chuck up onto the table. It will then hold the work very close to true and a lot quicker than clocking in a 4 jaw.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Jasons method is very similar to how we centre the three jaw chuck on our rotary table. The table top has a MT2 socket in it and a test bar is fitted. The chuck in our application sits on a four slot Rotary table which is drilled and tapped 8mm and the drilled front mount chuck body has some radial movement before the screws are tightened. This allows quite good alignment, especially as the Pratt Burnerd is good for less then 0.002″ tir deviation throughout the full jaw range. We also have a Swiss Iosma optical centering tool which fits in the R8 and is spot on since a member of the Home Shop Machinist forum told me how to adjust it.

If Michael uses the tee slots to hold the chuck on his R T, fine centering will be easy.

[FulmenParticipant @fulmen]

Agreed, I have a small 4jaw on my rotary and it is far more versatile than a 3jaw. It’s a bit slower to mount, but rotary work tend to be more fiddly than lathe work so it doesn’t slow things down that much.

[Ian PParticipant @ianp]

If you are intending to more or less exclusively use the chuck on the rotary table then my suggestion would be to modify the chuck slightly by mounting it using three Tee nuts and long bolts passing through the chuck body, through holes drilled from the rear of the chuck by drilling through the three existing tapped holes. Almost certainly the holes will be beyond the scroll diameter so its a no risk modification.

Basically in other words you are converting the chuck to front mounting.

Even though the holes will be near the perimeter of the body there will be enough room to counterbore to accept a hex socket caphead (May need to reduce its head diameter)

Ian P

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