Rotary table for mini mill

[David Brown 9Participant @davidbrown9]

I am thinking of getting a rotary table for rmy Sieg SX2P mini milling machine . It's table is 40 cm long and 14.5 cm wide, just under 16 inches long and 5.7 inches wide.

Will a 6 inch rotary table fit on the mill, including enough room under the spindle, or should I get a 4 inch rotary table?

David

[David Brown 9Participant @davidbrown9]

[Clive FarrarParticipant @clivefarrar90441]

I have a 4" and it is quite big for the machine.

Personally I think a 6" would be overkill.

It does depend on what you intend doing with it though.

Regards clive

[David Brown 9Participant @davidbrown9]

I found an American site, Mini mill.com, which says that a 6 inch rotary table will fit, although it is a bit big. They say that a 5 inch table would be good, but they don't seem to exist!

I am not sure what I would use one for. Except I need to mill a flange from some 83mm diameter alumium round bar and it may be useful for this. Although I have a boring head and bar I could posssibly use these instead?

However, having used a boring bar once I got the impression that to remove quite a lot of material with one will take a long time! Using an end mill and rotary table seems likley to be quicker?

I guess I thought a 6 inch would be good as I could fit bigger things on to it, if neccessary.

David

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

You can extend the smaller tables capacity by bolting on a disc or plate when required. I have a piece of flame cut and ground mild steel about 15"x8" that I bolt on to my 10" table as required this enables me to swing large radius. Lots of M10 tapped holes in the plate for fastening makes a useful addition and easy to store.

[Bob PerkinsParticipant @bobperkins67044]

I am using a 4" on my SX2. I feel any thing else would be too big.

[VicParticipant @vic]

In many cases bigger is always better but there is a limit to how far you can go in terms of size if not cost. The solution as mentioned is to buy a size that suits your machine and make larger supplementary plates for it. They had a lovely 10" rotary table where I used to work but boy did it weigh a lot, not something you'd want to move very often. You can get low profile versions but I'm not sure how good they are. Vertex RT's seem good from the comments I've read. Let us know how you get on, pics would be nice!

[VicParticipant @vic]

If it helps the Vertex 4" isn't actually 4", it's a bit bigger at 110mm!

[Paul LousickParticipant @paullousick59116]

A 6" rotary table is a good an SX3 mill so a 4" would probably be better for an SX2 but this will also depend on the size of parts which you intend to machine.

I needed to mill a bigger job and made a mounting plate to attach to the top of the RT to hold the part so I could face the outer edge of a 250mm plate. The teeth on the worm gears are small and the extra load on them stripped some of the teeth. A costly exercise. An 8" RT would have been a better option.

Paul.

[herbert punterParticipant @herbertpunter99795]

Warco do a five inch table which fits on my X2 ok.

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

On these small rotary tables the conventional T slotted top is a pain in the rectum for mounting components. Using standard style T nuts, studs, clap bar and stepped wedges takes up so much space that its hard to find room for the job. Odds are that you won't be able to complete a cut without moving a clamp too so you need more clamps to ensure the piece stays where it should when altering things. Making clamp sets is one of those jobs that takes a lot more work than you expect too as it has to be done half decent. Crude ones may work sort of but when they let go of a week or two work ruining things …..

Grid of holes top plates letting you use smaller screws, either directly or with more compact clamps work much better in these sizes. If you are going to make, or buy a suitable top plate then its easy enough to put a 5" or whatever on 4" base. In my view 8" diameter is the smallest table size on which the conventional clamp sets can be considered adequately useful. Even then often cramped, 10" is more the mark. Thor Labs do nice aluminium breadboards with grids of tapped holes that are well worth considering if you can't face making your own and have the funds. The anodised aluminium surface is hard and well up to Model Engineering use. I have so used them myself. Three types :- 1/2" thick with 1/4" x 20 or M6 holes on a square 1" or 25 mm grid, 1/2" thick double density in both circular and rectangular shapes with extra holes in the middle of the square patterns and one mini size 3/8 " thick with M3 or 4-40 holes on 1/2" – 12 mm hole spacings. See here **LINK** for the circular ones. The 6" – 300 mm diameter one is probably most appropriate here and not totally unaffordable. Probably have to turn it down a bit which is a shame.

Clive.

[AjohnwParticipant @ajohnw51620]

Arc do some rotary tables that are somewhat different to the usual offerings. Might help, not sure.

**LINK**

John

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