I'm about to go pick up a Radius Attachment for a Bridgeport Mill. It appears it will do a lot of what you would use a rotary table for, with perhaps some advantages.
Am I right? What would this thing be used for?
It looks like this one:
I've never seen one of those, at first I thought you were talking about a cherrying head. If your answer isn't answered, please provide a followup.
Wes
Its old school, but was once a common item in shops. Yes it was used for radius and circle work. Jon
Looks like a complex solution to a simple problem. Rotary tables have been around as long as bridgeports. What can you do with this that a rotary table won't?
Karl
A lot, or at least a lot faster. A head like this allows you to move the center of the radius or circle, with the XY controls on the table. A rotary table requires a change in setup every time you want to relocate the center of the radius or circle. You can almost think of this head as equal to an XY table on top of a rotary table.
Sure, that makes sence. Glad I've got a CNC mill instead.
Karl
Indeed, but in the old days these were hot stuff.
Varying radii at any XY location. Now, if you had an XY rotary table... However, XY rotary tables have limited travel. This attachment would allow varying radii to be machined anywhere with the travels of the mill. Or, lacking an XY rotary table, milling features with radii arrayed around the center of a rotary table. Say, an array of pockets in a radial pattern. Old school for sure. Could be a real nice tool for a manual shop, but probably near totally obsolete in a job shop setting.
Jon
cherrying head.
Wes, from what I've found with some limited research, this is approximately equivalent to a cherrying head. Apparently you can do things with this that a rotary table won't do.
But it's all moot to me, as this won't work on anything I have, and my BP deal fell through. If I don't get a BP pretty quick I'll just sell it and get a rotary table.
cherrying head.
If you consider selling, you can contact me, I may be interested.
i
cherrying head.
Iggy, I would , but I can't figure out a valid email address for you. My email above is good, write soon. Rex
--I made a kludgey version of this to save the price of a Volstro, to cut an )-ring groove around a pocket-milled cutout. It's good for making radiused-corner grooves and other impossible stuff like that.. You won't use it often but you *will* find uses for it. Beats the heck out of the price of a new one.
He has an address at bottom of his web page.
cherrying head.
--Oops hit a wrong key; shoulda read 'to cut an O-ring groove'.
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