Small rotary tables

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

I’m in the market now for a small rotary table for use on an ML7-R with a vertical slide.

I handled some 3″ and 4″ versions at Ally Pally today and I wonder if anybody has any comments or suggestions to make , or even recommendations, about these babies.

RGD and Chronos were the prospective suppliers today, I’m not aware of any other distributors as of yet.

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

[Steve GarnettParticipant @stevegarnett62550]

We’ve used a 6″ Vertex at work for years, and have had absolutely no trouble with it whatsoever.

[Martin WParticipant @martinw]

Hi

I have got a Vertex 100mm (4 inch) rotary table and have been very pleased with it. I got mine from Chester UK as it was on offer at the time. They also do a 150mm table with at the same price but this includes dividing plates.

Cheers

Martin

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

The HV4 “Vertex” 4″ table from Chronos looks very similar to the HV4 “HBM” from RGD albeit some minor detail differences are apparent, the colour being the most obvious.

Comments would be most welcome.

I should have looked much harder at them at Ally-Pally.

Edited By The Merry Miller on 23/01/2011 20:07:57

[Roger WoollettParticipant @rogerwoollett53105]

I have one of the cheaper small rotary tables and have found it less than satisfactory. Mine is a 3″ (75mm) one but there are similar 4″ (100mm) versions around. They have a knurled brass screw on the side that locks the table. Before buying I suggest you tighten this screw (finger tight is sufficient) and watch the far side of the table very carefully. I think you will see it move. I dismantled mine and found that the table is supported by a single ball race at the bottom of the base which I do not consider a satisfactory design.

At Ally Pally I bought a 100mm Verttex table whic seems much more solid but have yet to try it out.

[GoCreateParticipant @gocreate]

Sounds like I have the same 3″ rotary table as Roger, very cheap but an expensive waste of money, the table visibly moves when milling or tightening the lock screw. I later bought a Sherline 4″ on ebay which I am very happy with, very accurate and well made.

 

Nigel

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

I’ve gone for the 4″ Vertex from Chronos, good value with an extra 5% discount using a loyalty card they gave me at Ally-Pally.

I already have the 6″ Vertex table but I couldn’t adapt my Myford ML7R to accomodate it!!

 

The final clincher was the available data for Vertex whereas data for the cheaper tables was virtually non-existent.

 

 

Haven’t found a page 2 yet but am still looking.

 

Below is the link to the data above.

 

 

http://rotagriponline.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&product_id=3241&flypage=shop.flypage&pop=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=29 

Edited By The Merry Miller on 24/01/2011 14:12:59

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

P.S. Ignore the prices

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

Well I eventually succumbed to the 4″ Vertex RT.

 

Initial impressions: a well made piece of kit.

 

Next job is adapting it to fit on an Myford ML7-R.

Has anybody out there tried this combination?

 

Comments most welcome.

[Nigel HeasmanParticipant @nigelheasman90013]

Hi Folks,

I’m seriously considering buying the 4″ Vertex rotary table but am a bit concerned that it looks to be “wrong handed” – i.e. when fixed to the ML7 top slide, with the table vertical, it will be facing the tailstock (with the handwheel towards the operator)! Are the pictures, on the Chronos web site, for example, correct? Or have I missed something obvious ??

Would appreciate comments from any users.

Thanks

Nigel

 

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Nigel,

My 6″ Vertex rotary table would also face the tailstock if mounted on the cross slide with the handle facing the front . All the rotary tables I have seen are this way round.

 

Les.

[Nigel HeasmanParticipant @nigelheasman90013]

Hi Les,

Thanks for the confirmation – they must be designed to be, primarily, mounted on a milling machine, which I do not have!

I wonder if anyone has “overcome” the problem of mounting them on an ML7 cross slide? Or do they live with the fact that the handle will be at the back?

To be honest, I haven’t yet checked if the 4″ will even be at or below centre height in that situation.

Perhaps I’m trying to do “the impossible” – I’m trying to find the simplest (cheapest) way to cut a 4″ radius slot in my Simplex expansion link inner plate – but that’s for another forum I guess.

Thanks for your reply

regards

Nigel

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

If the rotary table is fitted to a Vertical slide then it can go lower that the center hieght.

The vertical slide can be moved forward on the cross slide to facilitate this.

This way treat it as a horizontal milling machine.

 

Clive

[Gone AwayParticipant @goneaway]

Steer clear of the “tilt table” design that gives adjustable vertical angles. e.g. like this: Tilt-table

 

The locking screw is inadequate to hold it in position against the cutting forces and the angle will creep.

 

Also, when you use it horizontally, you have to tilt the table to get at a mounting screw. It’s easy to forget to lock it down again afterwards (ask me how I know).

 

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

 

Nigel,

 

After I bought my Vertex 4″ RT, I looked at making an adaptor plate to bolt onto the vertical slide so that the winding handle was at the top and facing me.

 

As I did not want to start drilling holes in the Myford vertical slide willy nilly I decided to buy a tee slotted angle plate (designed to fit on the Myford cross slide) from your favorite and mine, RGD tools.

 

The new angle plate was bolted loosely onto the cross slide with the vertical face just overlapping the left hand edge leaving sufficient slack in the bolts so that when the RT was abutting the angle plate I had a modicum of a self aligning facility with the lathe headstock axis.

 

I then fitted a 2mt arbor with a parallel extension into the mating taper of the RT.

then clamped the parallel extension in the three jaw chuck and wound the angle plate on the cross slide up to meet the mounting face of the RT.

 

I could then align the angle plate with the RT by use of the cross slide travel and when finally bolting the RT to the angle plate it would be dead on the centreline of the headstock spindle in the vertical plane as near as makes no odds,

 

Now I was able to determine exactly where I was going to drill the mounting holes (after previously checking that no harm will come to the internal gubbins) through the angle plate and subsequently spotting through into the base of the RT.

I then dismantled the internal gubbins from the table and drilled and tapped four M6 mounting holes that were spotted through from the angle plate previously and then cleared out the cast iron swarf generated. I drilled the holes in the angle plate 8mm dia. to allow some clearance for alignment purposes.

 

When ever I use the setup now I first mount the assembly in the three jaw chuck using the parallel arbour in the RT and then bring the angle plate up to the base of the RT and bolt up securely onto the RT and the cross slide.

 

Sorry if this was a bit long winded but I thought it would help the newbies as well.

 

Len P.

 

 

P.S.

Please note that using this arrangement  there will be no vertical adjustment of the  RT only longitudinal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By The Merry Miller on 24/10/2011 20:33:42

Edited By The Merry Miller on 24/10/2011 20:39:07

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Nigel you can do the expansion link by mounting the blank onto a strip of flat bar, pivot the bar off an angle plate and arrange a sliding pin to move the other end via the vertical slide. As the end of the flat bar goes up and down the work will move in an arc.

 

Thats the way I did the one on the Minnie in my avitar.

Edited By JasonB on 24/10/2011 20:51:47

[VersabossParticipant @versaboss]

Dear Merry Miller,

may I ask you to please, please stop inserting these overlong links! I thought that now even the last native from ‘behind the woods’ should know that this f***s up the whole page layout in this terrible forum software. Sorry for the strong words, but sometimes I find them necessary…

There is a fine service called TinyUrl, look that up please.

Grumpy greetings, Hansrudolf

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

Now whose throwing their toys out of the pram? (thats assuming you have any left)

 

Len. P.

 

 

[Brian in OZParticipant @brianinoz24148]

Hi “Merry Miller”,

re the second page on the rotary table

http://rotagriponline.com/datasheets/A02.pdf

ie just change the “A01” in the pdf URL to “A02” and you will find the page two

looks a nice bit of kit

Brian in OZ

[Nigel HeasmanParticipant @nigelheasman90013]

Hi Len & Jason,

many thanks for those very useful messages – appreciate your help!

I’ve just finished marking out the expansion links and will now search the scrap box for some suitable flat bar.

It’s good to be back in the workshop after the long hot summer here (North Cyprus) when it was just tooo hot to do anything much!

Cheers

Nigel

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

Nice looking bit of gear that, Brian in Oz, but did you checkout the dims. and weight of it.

 

Len. P.

 

[TreborParticipant @trebor]

Refering to Len's set up on the lathe vertical slide

I know this was a long time ago but have you any pictures to make it clear, as I've been looking into getting one of these along with deviding plates. Rdg tools told me it was too big to fit on my myford and tried selling me a cheaper one.

 

Edited By JasonB on 28/08/2013 17:37:29

[The Merry MillerParticipant @themerrymiller]

Evening Trebor,

You're not a sweet factory are you?

I'm right in the middle of making some double bow windsor chairs at the moment (as you are interested I've attached an image) so the myford lathe is out of action for a while.

As soon as it is convenient I will set the Rotary Table/Angle Plate up and post some images for you.

It could be as early as next week.

Len. P.

P.S. I've had to post this response in IE as I can't get the reply box to appear on Firefox, has anybody any ideas?

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Trebor,
Looking at RGD's website they recommend the 4" rotary table (Ref: 1638) to be used on the myford vertical slide. This is the same size that Len bought for this purpose.

Les.

Edited By Les Jones 1 on 28/08/2013 20:05:02

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