Rotary Table - When is a Vertex not a Vertex or possibly the other way round?

[GrahamC]

I recently had the need to make some parts that required indexing and drilling hole and some light milling. Up to today I did have a rotary table or a 5c spin indexer.

After a couple of weeks of fussing and wasting much time researching, making up my mind, second guessing my decision, researching some more, loosing more sleep trying to decide, making up my mind a second time and then going through the whole process at least three more times; I finally made a final decision. Yes indeed, I did. I went to the store messed about with some of their offerings for at 2 hours, made a decision, changed it, changed back and in the end I went with my instinct, plunked my money on the table and carted off home a 6" rotary table.

To be fair, my indexing needs where quite simple and I could have easily accomplished the same with the 5c collect spin indexer. I have 5c collets and making up an arbor to hold my parts would be dead easy. I however constantly worry about the future and what I will want to do tomorrow, next week and even next year. I prefer as most would to get the most bang for buck so I had early on leaned over the fence more towards a rotary table (but the spin indexer was never far from my thoughts).

When I finally dismissed the idea of the spin indexer as being OK for the task at hand but not holding near as much potential as a rotary table I narrowed on having to decide between a 4" or 6" table. I have often kicked myself (rather hard at that) for taking the cheap road or choosing something on the small side as it seemed to have I what I needed. These sorts of choices have always come back to haunt and my instinct was telling me to get the 6" rotary table.

Now you need to understand, I don't have a vertical mil but I do some light milling on my lathe (a 10 x 22 size) and even some on my drill press, very light indeed on the drill press but it gets the job done when nothing else will do.

What I finally decided on was this: http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=B061

BusyBee tools is like a small Canadian version of Grizzly tools and they also have this other 6" rotary table:

http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=B2485

This the 4" table I had in my wanderings also considered: http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=B2724

This long story has brought me (finally) to my pondering.

The rotary table I brought home looks identical to the Vertex 6" rotary table however is labeled as with the brand name of Yiyen Tzu Yen Industrial Co. Ltd. Precision Machine Tool Taiwan.

From my readings I found that Vertex rotary tables where well regarded and part of my choice was based on this rotary table being identical to the Vertex and quite possibly just a re-branded version.

But is it?

Is a Yiyen just a re-branded Vertex or is a Vertex a re-branded Yiyen or is one or the other a copy of the other?

The Vertex manual I have is nearly identical to the manual provided with my rotary table (or is it the other way round?). Parts numbers are the same as is the nomenclature used in the manuals.  Vertex refers to the tables as HV (for horizontal and vertical) and the Yiyen refers to the tables THV.

Anyone provide some light on this paradox?

In any respect, I am quite pleased with my purchase. Some cleaning up and a wee bit of tweaking and I will be all set.

It was even on sale. It is a bit large for my lathe and my drill press but not overly so; the 4" table would have been a bit the small side. Too bad they done (at least I couldn't find any reference) a 5" rotary table.

cheers, Graham in Ottawa Canada

[GrahamC]

I still haven't found an answer as to what if any relationship exists between Vertex and Yiyen.

Searchs on Yiyen machine tools (or similar) have been inconclusive. I dug the packaging box the rotary table came in out of the recycle bin; simply marked HV-6 rotary table (same nomenclature that Vertex uses).

At the moment my best guess is that a Vertex HV-6 6" rotary table (with 3 T slots) is essentially the same as the Yiyen HV-6 6" rotary table. Perhaps the Yiyen is the branded version that Busy Bee tools sells, perhaps Yiyen actually became Vertex sometime in the not too distant past and these HV-6 rotary tables that Busy Bee are currently selling are old stock before the name change. Interestingly someone mentioned that they have a newer Vertex 6" rotary table that has four T slots. Busy Bee also sells a 6" rotary table with tailstock and indexing attachment which also has four T slots (and a much newer Busy Bee stock number and looks to be a rebranded Vertex as well - the Yinen 6" rotary table has an older Busy Bee stock number).

Perhaps I will never know. On to getting some work done.

cheers, Graham in Ottawa Canada

[raynerd]

Graham, the one thing that I have come to appreciate over the last 6 months is that although copy machines often look identical, each designer changes little specs in the build. Sure, they are all based on a very similar design but they certainly do make changes. I`ve seen RDG tools who are now selling their own machines one of which basically looks identical to my Chester Conquest and the Seig X2 machine but there are subtle changes that RDG have specified, either to improve function and increase the price or lower function but decrease price. They are not exact copies as some poeple tend to band about constantly.

It could possibly be identical but unless you stripped them side by side you can`t really tell.

Chris

[bogstandard]

Graham,

I bought my Vertex HV6 6" RT nearly 20 years ago, and that has 4 slots. So I don't think it is a modern thing. It is still running well after all these years and is in constant use. I will be giving it a major service sometime soon, it must need it by now.

You might find that the same factory builds them all, and Vertex has a different specification for ones that are produced for them. It just might be they take the better made ones and have them badged up and stuck in their own boxes. I think this happens in a lot of the far east factories for most tooling.

In fact only the other day I run foul of a new bit of Vertex tooling. The R8 fitting was such a tight tolerance, it jammed up in my mill spindle. After I managed to release it, a quick file down the locating slot had it running perfectly. I just now need to repair the locating pin that it jammed on. Maybe they should slacken off a bit on tight tolerances.


Bogs