Rotary table

[Chuck in E. TN]

I'm going to build a rotary table as documented here: http://www.deansphotographica.com/machining/projects/mill/rotary/rotary1.html.

I am still digging up materials. I've got a worm and gear from a treadmill incline motor, but it's helical. The drive screw from the incline setup would make a worm if I can find a gear to use with it. I have the plate fr the top and base, no square tube yet.  Plan on using a cast iron flywheel from a treadmill as the table bit, but its only 1" thick. Might work.
This will be a budget project. I plan to even make a t-slot cutter as per the site above. Someware, put away for safe keeping (read I can't find it!), I have the transmission from a self-propelled lawn mower that had a heardy worm and worm gear, that might serve me better.

Chuck in E. TN

[Brass_Machine]

Looking forward to seeing the build log Chuck. I have been thinking about disassembling my cheapo RT and building one along the lines of Deans' table. I am not to happy with mine, but the gears and stuff may be put to good use.

Make sure you take lots of pictures!

Eric

[Dean W]

Have fun with it, Chuck. 
The table on the original unit is only 3/4" thick, so your 1" piece should do fine.  Being cast iron, it will surely be easier to cut the T-slots in than the HRS I used on mine.
I would suggest that when you make your T-slot cutters, you make the bottom surface of them slightly dish shaped.  Will be a lot easier on the cutter.  Try to choose your worm and gear so it will give you easy divisions, if possible.

Good luck,

Dean

[sbwhart]

What a great project looking forward to following it, you'll have a real handy bit of kit when its finished.

Have fun

Stew

[Chuck in E. TN]

Being a rank amateur at machining, I am going to attack this build from that perspective. I could probably save up a few bucks, and purchase a rotary table from HF, or E-Bay, that would meet my needs, but where’s the fun in that?  Or, I could buy all the parts and materials, and throw it together, but I doubt there would be any cost savings over buying a HF unit, and a lot less satisfaction.
I will use the build write-up from Dean Williams’ site as a reference and giude.
I went out to the shop this morning to start gathering materials. The first worm/gear set I mentioned are not suitable, as they are at the wrong angle. The second worm gear set has possibilities, but will require some work to be functional.
The incline screw from the treadmill could be the donor for the worm gear, by cutting off a piece, boring through it and adding a set screw to mount it on a smaller shaft. This has the benefit of being the same thread pitch as the change wheels on my mini lathe.
I have ¼” plate in aluminum and steel, and 3/8” in steel. The trick will be to find 4” square tube of sufficient wall thickness, or a suitable substitute.
For the rotating part, the treadmill motor flywheels will not work as they are dished with fins, and not solid 1” thick rounds. The thickest part on one is only ¼ “. So I’m back to finding a 4” round of something 1-1 ½” thick.
I include all these thoughts and decisions to show other armatures the process I’m going through.
As with any posting on this board, I welcome suggestions and comments.

[kvom]

I'll be up in Oak Ridge next weekend.  Anywhere near you?

[Dean W]

Chuck, a few suggestions;

Do you have usable welding skills?  If so, you could weld up two pieces of angle iron or four pieces of flat iron to make the base.  Then square and true it on the mill.  If welding is not an option, you could screw these pieces together.  The 1/4" wall square tubing I used is a standard structural size.  You may be able to get a scrap piece at a welding fab shop for a couple bucks.

You can sometimes find worm and gear sets on ebay at a fair price.

I mentioned it in the article, but it's worth repeating.  Try to find round stock to use for the table.  I used a piece of flame cut HRS flat plate, and it was a chore to bring to size.  Lots of tool sharpening exercise getting rid of the flame cut.

The large bearing is pretty cheap at NAPA.  About $9 for bearing and race. 

Hopefully a few other guys will chime in with material suggestions.  Getting everything gathered and scrounged up is half the battle!

What size is your lathe?

Dean

[Chuck in E. TN]

KVOM, I'm in E. TN, near Kingsport.
Dean, I didn't realize you were on this list! Great article on the rotary table. I have a 7x14 Micromark Lathe and an HF X2 mill. I spent yesterday working on the cross slide travel mod for the lathe. Had the materials for that at hand and figured I'd need the extra travel to work the table.
Got the cross slide milled out, and the spacer made, but messed up on the lead screw extention. My crap-o-cad working drawing confused me... I'll have a new start on the screw extention tonight.
It's o'dark early here, the dog has a possum cornered in the back yard and won't leave it be. Got to go intervene...

Chuck in E. TN

[Chuck in E. TN]

Got the 4" square tube, 4" round stopc, and 3/8" plate. Only problem, I didnt pay attention to the dimentions. Got a lot of facing/milling to get to size!


Chuck in E. TN

[Dean W]

You'll get it, Chuck.  Just more practice making chips!

Dean

[John Hill]

If I may make a few suggestions on the subject of materials for a rotary table:-

For the rotary bit look for a lathe face plate with T slots.  I used one to make a rotatable vice mount on my shaper.

Cast iron exercise weights from the local fitness store are an easy source of material although for a rotary table you might have to somehow sandwich a couple together. Incidently, if you are using these for anything it is a good idea to use a cold chisel to knock the lettering off before mounting in the lathe to true it up.

It is not very difficult to make a worm and wheel especially if you are satified with a aluminium wheel. I wrote a topic on this at http://madmodder.net/index.php?topic=1773.0

[madjackghengis]

Being a rank amateur at machining, I am going to attack this build from that perspective. I could probably save up a few bucks, and purchase a rotary table from HF, or E-Bay, that would meet my needs, but where’s the fun in that?  Or, I could buy all the parts and materials, and throw it together, but I doubt there would be any cost savings over buying a HF unit, and a lot less satisfaction.
I will use the build write-up from Dean Williams’ site as a reference and giude.
I went out to the shop this morning to start gathering materials. The first worm/gear set I mentioned are not suitable, as they are at the wrong angle. The second worm gear set has possibilities, but will require some work to be functional.
The incline screw from the treadmill could be the donor for the worm gear, by cutting off a piece, boring through it and adding a set screw to mount it on a smaller shaft. This has the benefit of being the same thread pitch as the change wheels on my mini lathe.
I have ¼” plate in aluminum and steel, and 3/8” in steel. The trick will be to find 4” square tube of sufficient wall thickness, or a suitable substitute.
For the rotating part, the treadmill motor flywheels will not work as they are dished with fins, and not solid 1” thick rounds. The thickest part on one is only ¼ “. So I’m back to finding a 4” round of something 1-1 ½” thick.
I include all these thoughts and decisions to show other armatures the process I’m going through.
As with any posting on this board, I welcome suggestions and comments.

A long time ago, I made a very simple rotary table out of half inch plate steel, milling two half inch slots half way through one round plate, crossing in the middle, and milling two one inch slots across the other plate, crossing in the middle, using dowel pins and countersunk screws to hold the two plates together, with the in slots parked right over the half inch slots, and facing down, and milling half inch slots through to the inch slots, finishing the T slots without a cutter, and without a machine heavy enough to cut T-slots, using only a drill press and x-y table to mill it with.  You can use an ordinary 14&1/2 degree spur gear and an acme thread cut to match the pitch diameter, if you don't mind the shaft being at the helix angle of the acme thread.  for what it's worth, mad jack

[Chuck in E. TN]

I actually went to a machine/fab shop and got 4" round, 4" square tube, and 3/8" plate cut. I messed up and ordered the 4" round at 2" thick. I may take it back and see if they can slice it in half...( can they?)
I have given thought to the reply from John Hill and I think I will duplicate the nose of my minilathe spindle as the mounting hub to make mounting the lathe face plate, and chucks a snap. Thanks for the inspiration, John.
I'm tied up in s few other interuptions at the moment, my lawn tractor deck tore up last night, and more stuff came in for the DRO-550 today.
Plus, I just finished the minilathe cross slide travel mod in preparation for turning 4" stock.
I also have to make the T-slot cutter per Deans build. Never done anything like that before.
Sorry for the slow progress folks. But I will get 'er done!

Chuck in E. TN

[Chuck in E. TN]

I pass a small machine shop daily on the ride to work. I stopped in Friday and had them slice my 4" round in half. Now I have 2ea, 1" thick pieces of 4" round.
Got my DRO-550 up and running today, that will help with the table.
I'm still thinking on duplicating the nose of my lathe spindle.

Chuck in E. TN

[Chuck in E. TN]

I'm proceeding with a plan to duplicate my lathe spindle from a cast iron flywheel from a treadmill. I have it chucked on the lathe and am trying turn off the fins. I am not having much trouble, but the hhs tool contacting the fins is making a ringing noise. How aggressive should I get turning the fins off? I know its an interrupted cut, and I think I should be using the carriage lock.
Any other ideas?

Chuck in E. TN

[Bernd]

Only thing I can come up with is to use an angle grinder and grind the fins down to where you won't have much of an interupted cut. Might be a bit messy but should work.

Bernd

[John Hill]

If the fins are cast iron it might be easy to take them off with a cold chisel.

[Chuck in E. TN]

I cut the fins off with a hack saw. After resharpening the tool bit, it cleaned up nicely. Pics tomorrow.

Chuck in E. TN

[Bernd]

I cut the fins off with a hack saw. After resharpening the tool bit, it cleaned up nicely. Pics tomorrow.

Chuck in E. TN

All right, great. 

Bernd

[Chuck in E. TN]

Time I got back to work on the rotary table. Here's the materials I have gathered to date.
4" x 4" x 3/8" crs plate
4" x 2" square tube
4" x 1" round steel
3 1/2" x 1 1/2" round steel
bearing from treadmill roller
worm from treadmill incline

I turned a bolt to be a sliding fit to the bearing for an axle. Today I was looking over the parts wondering which worm set up to use. I placed the 80 tooth change gear from my lathe next to the worm screw and wohoo! It fit! Next, I tried the fit of the gear on the axil, WOHOO! Twice in a row, it fit! Is that beginners luck or what!
Now to think about which gear to actually use in the RT. A 60 tooth gear would give me 6° resolution; an 80 tooth gear, 4.5°, right?
I'll ask for recommendations on the choice of gears, as long as it is a mini lathe change gear...
Now I feel confident this is doable for me!
I am going to turn the 3 1/2" round to be a duplicate of my minilathe spindle nose so I can easily use my 4" independant jaw chuck, 3" 3 jaw chuck, or faceplate.
So, today, I will work on the spindle nose and on cutting off a piece of the worm screw and making an axle for it..
I have a couple of skare bearings set aside for the worm screw axil, also. I have posted pictures here: http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss157/chucketn/Machining/Rotary%20Table/

By the way, how do you put pictures into posts?

And, forgot to add, I gave up on using the tradmill flywheel when I got the big disk sawn in half.

[Chuck in E. TN]

Duh! Found the insert image button... But, can't make it work!

So far today, Ive made the worm, and it's axle, and trimmed up the square tube. I learned one thing, I won't be going back to the machine shop that first cut my materials... The square tube was way out of square on the cut...
Had fun experimenting with the clamping kit to secure the square tube on the table.

Pieces made today added to my photobucket site.

Chuck in E. TN

[Artie]

Hi Chuck, lucky is right. Good luck with the rrest of her. My RT has a 90 to 1 ratio and I feel this is ok... however, its the only one ive ever owned so my experience is limited.

Get into them pictures man...

Cheers

Rob T

[andyf]

Hi Chuck,

You are nearly there with the pics. Have one browser window open to compose your post, and another open and showing whichever Photobucket album your pics are in. Compose your post. When you get to the point where a pic is to go, click on the image button (under the I for Italic one) and {img][/img] will appear in your post, but with a square rather than a wriggly bracket at the front, and your cursor flashing in the middle. Now transfer to the Photobucket album and hover the cursor over the pic you want. Four boxes will appear below. Click on the text in the bottom IMG box, which will turn blue. Then right-click and choose the Copy option.

Return your browser to your message where the cursor is still flashing between the brackets, right-click on it and choose the Paste option. That will insert the code you copied into your message, between the img and the /img. Click Preview under your message, and scroll up to the preview pane, where you should see your photo in glorious Technicolor. Scroll back down to the message pane to continue your post.

It's a good idea to put a carriage return before the {img] and after the [/img]. 

Good Luck!

80T would be awkward on your rotary table. It would be better to choose 40, 60 or 60T, so that one turn will move things by a whole number of degrees. 80T and 4.5^o might make it hard to keep track of your dial. The more teeth, the finer the resolution on the dial, but the longer it will take to crank the table round to the required position. Unless, that is, you make the worm disconnectable so you can grab the table and twist it round.

Andy

[Dean W]

Hi Chuck;
Looks like you've got most of the materials rounded up.  Sometimes that's half the battle!
I have a 60t gear on mine, and since it's the only one I have, I'm very used to it.  A 72t is probably the
easiest to use, since it gives 5° per turn of the hand wheel, but I do fine with the 60t, and wouldn't
hesitate to use it again.

If your photos are in Photobucket, you don't have to do anything but copy and past.  You don't need to
use the IMG tags, as Pbucket puts them in automatically.  Check it out:




When you scroll over your pics, a drop down selection will appear under each one.  Click on the one that
says "IMG code", then copy it, and simply paste it directly into your post.  That's it.

From the example above, here's what you get by just pasting that bit in:



So, show us the pics!  : )

Dean

[andyf]

If your photos are in Photobucket, you don't have to do anything but copy and past.  You don't need to
use the IMG tags, as Pbucket puts them in automatically.  Check it out:

Thanks for the correction, Dean  . I was getting mixed up with inserting pics in posts to Yahoo groups.

Chuck, I don't think a 72T gear is a standard mini-lathe part, but mini-lathe gears are metric Module 1, so you could get a 72T from a gear supplier.

Andy