Rotary table + cross slide ……. why ?

[BWParticipant @bw]

What would you use this for please ? Am puzzled.

https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?WD=rotary%20table&PN=SCT-Rotary-Tables%2ehtml#a40314002A

Bill

Edited By JasonB on 03/02/2019 08:04:49

[BWParticipant @bw]

[Brian GParticipant @briang]

A cross slide on top of a rotary table would simplify milling a rectangular object with rounded corners or perhaps a flycrank as a single operation (rotate around one centre, traverse, rotate around the other centre, traverse). I had been considering making a slide to fit my rotary table for this very reason. You could also make a slot with rounded ends whose radius didn't match any of your cutters.

On the other hand I have no idea what you could do with the other version that has a rotary table on top of a cross slide that you couldn't do with a rotary table on a milling machine. It might be useful as as a vertical slide on a lathe, or at some other angle on a sine bar?

Brian

[Jeff DaymanParticipant @jeffdayman43397]

Quite handy for connecting rods and other linkage parts, for rounding ends and transitioning to side profiling without setting up again.

Also deals with any setups where people make top sub-plates for work holding on their rotary tables.

Will take up a lot of Z height though, if the mill is on the small side in Z already.

A bit beyond my budget though.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Bill

Have a look at the BCA pages on lathes.co.uk

… or the description of any horological style mill/jig-borer

It should soon become apparent what this contraption is attempting to emulate.

MichaelG.

.

http://www.lathes.co.uk/bca/

https://www.chronos.ltd.uk/wp-content/uploads/taspecs.jpg

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/02/2019 08:59:13

[IanTParticipant @iant]

This is about the best explanation I've seen – covers the essential details…

https://rick.sparber.org/rtcs.pdf

Regards,

IanT

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Looks good on a shelf? Funny that the dimensioned drawing seems to show a machine vice rather than a coordinate table, but 6 inches height? and by the time you've added some clamps on the table you've run out of space for any but small parts, or you add a vice and lose more height!!

Silly idea IMHO – most parts are dimensioned relative to orthogonal XY coordinates, but with this the coordinates rotate!

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 03/02/2019 08:48:20:

It should soon become apparent what this contraption is attempting to emulate.

MichaelG.

.

The one in question is the opposite way round to the BCA substitute – RT under the cross slides

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by John Haine on 03/02/2019 09:48:35:

Funny that the dimensioned drawing seems to show a machine vice

.

… I carefully selected the drawing that shows the rotary table atop X & Y slides

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by JasonB on 03/02/2019 10:16:03:

Posted by Michael Gilligan on 03/02/2019 08:48:20:

 

It should soon become apparent what this contraption is attempting to emulate.

MichaelG.

.

The one in question is the opposite way round to the BCA substitute – RT under the cross slides

.

But the one I linked [previously mentioned in Brian G's post] isn't !!

MichaelG.

.

P.S. … for the reason of understanding the usage; does it really matter in what order the axes are stacked ?

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 03/02/2019 10:36:34

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

All it needs is a tilting vice under, or on, it and most angles could be covered! As well as using up even more vertical work space.

[Brian GParticipant @briang]

To be fair to the device, I had only considered milling. Used with a rigid pillar drill (i.e. not my one), the second type could be a useful substitute for a jig borer. A tiny version would go nicely with our recently acquired Proxxon drill – the one in the link appears to be bigger than either the drill or my budget

Brian

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by IanT on 03/02/2019 09:35:38:

This is about the best explanation I've seen – covers the essential details…

https://rick.sparber.org/rtcs.pdf

.

Nice find, Ian

**LINK** for convenience.

MichaelG.

[John MCParticipant @johnmc39344]

I have a Pollard Corona drill that has an X-Y table with an old Ortec DRO fitted, bolted permanently to the work table. Extremely useful, with a trued up vice and an edge finder I rarely mark out before drilling now. If the X -Y+rotary table had more travel I think I would buy one to extend the versitality of the set up I have described.

John

[Chris TriceParticipant @christrice43267]

The SCT version lower down on the same Chronos page has an embarrassingly off centre tee slot for an advertising photo.

[Paul H 1Participant @paulh1]

Thank you for the link. Taking a look at the https://rick.sparber.org site reveals lots of other interesting stuff to look at. He has a lot on building the Gingery Shaper for instance.

[IanTParticipant @iant]

Yes Paul – there is a ton of stuff on Ricks' site (which might not be too obvious on first sight) – and it's very well worth a browse. I first "found" him when looking for a 'Shaper' vice – he has some interesting ideas in this area – and many other topics.

Regards,

IanT

[Mike E.Participant @mikee-85511]

I have a Palmgren rotary table with the x & y cross slides. When I was young, all I had was a drill press, and paired with the x/y rotary table served me admirably for light milling and making custom spool hubs for the chopped bikes I worked on back in the early 1970's. Would have loved to have had a mill back then.

[BWParticipant @bw]

Thanks for all the info.

Bill

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