Rotary table

Most RTS have 4 radial slots for clamping. Most 4-jaw chucks have 4 bolts for clamping. Simple. Center the table on the mill, put T-nuts in the 4 slots, bolt the chuck on, center the chuck body, tighten.

3-jaw chucks are tougher.

GWE

Hi Gerry,

I've just done this with a Vertex 6" table which has a four tee slots and a 2MT hole in the centre.

I turned a lump of steel into a disc with a Boxford spindle nose screw thread in the centre, complete with a hole. Four holes near the edge to hold it down to the rotary table using bolts and T-nuts.

Then I made a 2 morse taper bar (kind of like a test bar). Stick this in the centre hole, mount a chuck to the plate, put the plate on the rotary table, grip the bar with the chuck and then tighten down the plate.

Apologies for the poor description - I can send you some pictures to make it clear if you like.

There are probably other (likely better!) ways of doing it though...

Cheers,

Jez.

Not much. Machine a backing plate with 4 holes outboard and three holes inboard to receive the chuck. Or if you're lucky, I bought a small Bison

3-jaw for my 4" table and also a pre-machined adapter plate. In either case, then proceed as above to center.

Of course, if your table has 6 slots (common) or 3 slots (rare) then the three-jaw is easy and the 4-jaw requires and adapter plate.

One trick to help center the chuck when you mount it on the table. Make up an arbor with an MT#2 (or whatever the table's center hole taper is) on one end and straight, about 1/2" diameter on the other, long enough to poke out through the chuck with a bit left over. Pop the MT plug into the table's center hole. Drop (gently) the chuck, which has been opened to clear the plug, over the plug. Now tighten the chuck. It should be nicely centered. Then tighten up the hold-down bolts.

Boris