Rotary Table Quest

[Roger BensonParticipant @rogerbenson45349]

Thank you all. I will just have to wait until they are in stock somewhere. Vertex or Soba.

DRO next?

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

Try googling for rotary tables, I found a very nice second hand Vertex with indexing plates and the tailstock for £280.

[Pete.Participant @pete-2]

Is there any reason you're limiting yourself to those 2 rotary tables? I bought this 250mm Hofmann rotary table in hardly used condition for £260.

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

As above, I picked up a lovely 8" EME rotary table (thought to be Eastern European) for £100 last year.

I'd certainly be buying a DRO before a rotary table, in fact since I've had the DRO I've not used the RT. There's a job coming up soon that has circular slots that I'll use it for but even that could be done with a DRO…

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

That Hoffman is a beauty, but a 10" table is Bridgeport size, just a bit bigger than a 6" one.

[Pete.Participant @pete-2]

It sits quite comfortably on my Boxford vm30 table, It's well under the weight limit of what you can put on the table, I did check this before buying, can't remember what it is though off the top of my head.

The Hofmann tables are relatively low profile in comparison to the diameter of table size, so a 8" Hoffman would be a viable option for a smaller machine, I've seen a couple for the £150 ~£220 price range recently .

If new ones are out of stock, it's worth keeping your eye out for something on the used market that might be cheaper and better quality.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

It's not so much the low file that matters on a small machine, it's the axis height above the table when mounted vertically and being able to get to the work without the spindle and/or head hitting the R/T.

Do Hoffman and the like do dividing plates as many hobby users what those for use with the R/T rather than the additional cost of a dividing head that most commercial workshops would have had?

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by JasonB on 24/11/2020 06:54:28:

It's not so much the low file that matters on a small machine, it's the axis height above the table when mounted vertically and being able to get to the work without the spindle and/or head hitting the R/T.

Do Hoffman and the like do dividing plates as many hobby users what those for use with the R/T rather than the additional cost of a dividing head that most commercial workshops would have had?

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Happy to be corrected, but I doubt if Pete’s lovely Hoffmann has integral mountings for both H and V … other models are available.

… Add an angle plate, or box, and it would be unusable on many small machines.

MichaelG..

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Edit: for info and drooling …

http://www.hofmann-rt.com/rtables.html

 

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 24/11/2020 09:18:11

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

An 8" or 6" box or angle plate would also take up a lot of table length that a small milling machine would not have, at least the Soba & Vertex designs have the "angled foot" within the height of the table.

From your link it does look like they do plates but no mention of a tailstock which would support your thoughts on horizontal use only though they do have some separate ones. Also does not have a machined edge just another lug for a hold down bolt so that would add about another 3" to the horizontal axis so our poor OP won't stand a chance of getting any tooling in on his SX2.7

 

Edited By JasonB on 24/11/2020 09:46:47

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

SOBA do tailstocks, I just bought a second hand one from the unmentionable auction site for £40, HV4 – 6 size. It's been lightly used, still in box so effectively new, it's a crude and poorly finished bit of kit but for what or when I use it I'll do.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by JasonB on 24/11/2020 09:25:53:

[…]

.

Yes, it’s a table

… funny old thing, the English language

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Further exploration finds this: **LINK**

http://www.hofmann-rt.com/tsh.html

But I doubt one will turn-up at a bargain price

MichaelG.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Which brings up back to what I said about needing a separate dividing head, even then that won't do cuts around the circumference of the work.

The WR would be the closest to the typical HV (horizontal/vertical) Vertex and Soba designs but they start at 10"

 

Edited By JasonB on 24/11/2020 10:28:45

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by JasonB on 24/11/2020 10:26:29:

Which brings up back to what I said about needing a separate dividing head, even then that won't do cuts around the circumference of the work.

The WR would be the closest to the typical HV (horizontal/vertical) Vertex and Soba designs but they start at 10"

Edited By JasonB on 24/11/2020 10:28:45

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True … which is why I mentioned H and V in my earlier comment.

The real question, I think, is whether we attach great importance to that feature … or can a bigger and better item like Pete’s Hofmann [please excuse me earlier mis-spelling] provide more ‘value’ on a small machine.

Only the user can decide

MichaelG.

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

I have a Soba 5 inch table, it was the size that drew me to it as my mill (SX2P) is not that big. A 4 inch R/T seemed a bit too small and a 6 inch too big, I don't know if other manufacturers do a 5 inch but Soba do and I bought it as a set for £300 which is as much as I could afford at the time. It came with a dividing set, a chuck mounting plate and 80mm 4 jaw chuck and a tailstock.

In one or two places it is a bit rough around the edges but nothing much and overall it is good. Where it is very good is in its operation, I can't fault the table mount and the drive. It has no backlash, no play and the drive is very smooth and most importantly it is accurate.

So it may not look as well engineered or as pretty as the expensive tables but it more than makes up for it in its operation. So it met my budget came with extras and works very well, based on that I can't fault it.

Ron

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

With a 6" Soba/Vertex RT, the rear of the table is about 4 1/2" from the axis. This takes up a lot of the throat depth on smaller machines. This size of RT covers the full width of the table of the Tom Senior LV, and is another major factor to consider.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Haven't checked how high the table is, when in the Horizontal mode.

When I checked my Vertex HV6, with the table Vertical, the centre height was exactly 4 inches from the table of the mill.

It is almost always used with Division Plates, and with a Tailstock to provide support for gear cutting.

My Tailstock centre is hardened. With a 2MT blank arbor, suitably bored, the RT and the Tailstock can be aligned with regard to the Tee slots in the Mill table, and the Tailstock centre aligned in the vertical plane.

Howard

[Pete.Participant @pete-2]

Posted by JasonB on 24/11/2020 06:54:28:

It's not so much the low file that matters on a small machine, it's the axis height above the table when mounted vertically and being able to get to the work without the spindle and/or head hitting the R/T.

Do Hoffman and the like do dividing plates as many hobby users what those for use with the R/T rather than the additional cost of a dividing head that most commercial workshops would have had?

They do dividing plates, but they are horizontal only, I'm not trying to sell him a Hofmann rotary table, just pointing out the second hand market often has better buys, even smaller 6" RT's of a more industrial design can be found cheaper than new hobby equipment, if hobby gear is out of stock, no harm in looking at what's available on the used market?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Nothing against S/H just making the OP aware that most of the secondhand offerings are either Far eastern H/V types or industrial horizontal only ( what e-bay showed anyway). Chances of being able to find a set of plates for an old out of production R/T will be slim as probably been separated years ago and then if you also need to use it vertically you will have to hope you can fit it onto a small mill with angle plates etc. or buy another that can be mounted vertically.

Industry probably got by with horizontal tables as they no doubt had a universal or horizontal machine in the shop that could get to the sides of the work and always easier to mount work on a flat surface anyway. The small benchtop machine user has to do it all with the vertical spindle so needs a compact R/T that can be used in both planes and even mounted at an angle as I have had to do in the past..

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Not wishing to be argumentative … just mentioning another approach:

The lathe can provide an excellent alternative to mounting a rotary table ‘vertically’

[i.e. with its rotational axis horizontal]

For some users, it may be easier to add dividing and milling facilities to the lathe, and use the milling machine only with a low-profile rotary table.

MichaelG.

[Ron LadenParticipant @ronladen17547]

Posted by Ron Laden on 24/11/2020 10:46:13:

I have a Soba 5 inch table, it was the size that drew me to it as my mill (SX2P) is not that big. A 4 inch R/T seemed a bit too small and a 6 inch too big, I don't know if other manufacturers do a 5 inch but Soba do and I bought it as a set for £300 which is as much as I could afford at the time. It came with a dividing set, a chuck mounting plate and 80mm 4 jaw chuck and a tailstock.

In one or two places it is a bit rough around the edges but nothing much and overall it is good. Where it is very good is in its operation, I can't fault the table mount and the drive. It has no backlash, no play and the drive is very smooth and most importantly it is accurate.

So it may not look as well engineered or as pretty as the expensive tables but it more than makes up for it in its operation. So it met my budget came with extras and works very well, based on that I can't fault it.

Ron

Just in case it should be of interest to anyone with a small mill and is considering a rotary table here are the numbers from my mill with a 5 inch r/t.

Mill table to spindle 280mm

Top face of r/t above mill table 70mm

Face of r/t to spindle 210mm , (mounted horizontal)

Centre of r/t to spindle 137mm, (mounted vertical)

So it's not too bad for a small mill I haven't been caught out yet though I have been close with it in the vertical.

Ron

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

Chronos have the SOBA HV6 rotary table back in stock Roger…

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

A direct copy from their current advertising blurb.

”one revolution of the hand wheel = 4′ of rotation of the table”

Doesn’t quite compute with other claims, of course, but does demonstrate that one should not believe everything as advertised…🙂

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I think they meant 4 degrees, rather than 4 minutes.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by not done it yet on 09/12/2020 11:28:32:

A direct copy from their current advertising blurb.

”one revolution of the hand wheel = 4′ of rotation of the table”

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Well spotted

I wonder how the user manual goes about explaining that

MichaelG.

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Ref.

OUR TABLE IS SUPPLIED WITH AN 8 PAGE FULL MANUAL – NOT AVAILABLE FROM OTHER SUPPLIERS!

[Author]

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