Bought a rotary table

Heavy sucker isn't it? I would recomend an investment in a lift cart.

If you mean on a permanent basis, I would suggest that it should not be mounted such. It's too inconvenient not having access to both ends of the slots of your mill, for one, plus it will be in the way more than you can imagine. It will become a chip catcher and make cleaning the slots in your mill more difficult. You'd probably have to relocate the table to use it when you needed it, so you're far better off to store it on a bench that is very near table height, and close to the table of the mill. I store my rotab that way----so all I have to do to mount it on the mill is to slide it off the table far enough to wipe the edge clean, pick it up and move it ever so slightly to the mill table, wipe the balance of the base clean and slide it in position. It's not easy, but it's far easier than fighting with rotab being in the way when I use the mill. You'll come to realize that while a rotab is a very important accessory for manual milling, it doesn't get used a lot.

Harold

Wes, I have a shop crane, it should work for this purpose.

Harold, OK, I will keep it on my shop table on casters. You have made good points.

I simply would try it. But maybe that's too complicated for you.

Nick

First rule of machine shop:

Never pick up something heavy until you have a place to put it down...

I picked up a 12" rotary table and put it on a bp at work ONCE. Same kind of thinking had be buying a 6" kurt instead of a 8". So far my back still works and I'd like to keep it that way.

Wes

Very wise. I while ago I made some homemade eye bolts that fit into slots on rotary tables and such, and they would come handy this time

-- will work nicely with my shop crane.

What happens 2 minutes after you mount it vertically and horizontally?

He'll get his first degree in understanding machining.

Nick

Is that what I call an engine lift? We have a modified one at work with an electric actuator and counterweights for changing chucks on some of our CNC lathes.

Wes

Other people call it engine hoist. I am not sure what is thew proper name. Here are some pictures. It is one of my most often needed tools.

Yep!

They're a hand full! I have the right angle attachment for mine, and I've moved it once, assembled, too. It was all I could handle when I was one hell of a lot younger than I am now. Recent excursions with the angle bracket have had me assembling it on the mill. I can still handle the rotab, but don't walk anywhere with it.

Harold

Very nice, but make certain that they can't shift in the slots while you're using them. Don't rely strictly on balance for them to remain where you place them. I keep getting visions of the rotab tilting to one side, with the high side eye coming out of the slot.

Harold

It is too long to explain, and I am drunk, but no, they do not slide because I can screw them in and tighten. The nuts go into T slots and I screw the bolts into nuts so that they are totally fixed inside the slots.

Note the hex cap screw pointing directly at you in this photo...

Ned Simmons

A-ha, that's what it is! I was aware that some tables have morse tapers in the middle, but apparently this one indeed takes bolts. Very nice. I will take my eyebolt with me when I go to pick it up. Could be some time next week, he is closed on Monday.

The seller told me that the weight of this table is 225 lbs. I cannot lift that much by myself.

Here is a twice enlarged version of this picture

I use a set of cables with flat hooks that slip in the ends of the T slots. The four short cables are connected to a big ring that hooks onto the lifting device. The hooks themselves are about the width and depth of the slots and are bent 100 degrees with a hole in the top for other end of the cable. They came with the machine I bought at an auction and work on anything that has T slots on it.

The thing is cheap enough to make and very handy if you are moving stuff with T slots in it. I use it for moving pallets on and off the machines. A couple of cable clamps, thimbles and a couple pieces of bar stock is what it takes to fabricate one.

John