Slide table

Some of the import stuff is pretty poor. Palmgren used to make decent stuff, but I haven't seen or used one of their X-Y tables.

Check a used machinery dealer for higher-quality stuff.

I've got a Palmgren 6x12" tilting slide table (not X-Y) that is made well. It was an unused eBay purchase, so I'm not sure when it was manufactured, but the Palmgren accessories that I've used are considerably better (HSM duty) than China stuff.

I'm fairly particular about quality and assembly, and this Palmgren table only needed a thin shim washer to minimize the backlash at the screw anchor thrust bearing. The fact that it has a real thrust bearing puts it in a class above the cheap imported models.

Phase II might be a little better quality than the low-end stuff, but unlikely to be as good as Palmgren.

A China X-Y table I got as part of another deal was really rough. Bad leadscrews, really poor nuts, dovetails and minimal-mass in the castings. I suppose it would be decent to use for positioning sloppy woodworking, and not much else (certainly not feeding a metal cut). But instead of calling it a waste, I bought some acme 1/2"-10 screw and a tap to fabricate some better nuts, and maybe be usable at some time when I get around to messin' with it. I noticed that the base dovetail fits the top slide and the cross, so it can be reassembled as a single slide table. The trouble with trying to improve the low quality stuff is that many times it can't be.. too little material in the dovetail areas, or otherwise thin section castings where there needs to be more iron.

I've noticed in pictures that the low-end models usually have wide chamfers at the sides of the T-slots. I have no idea why they choose to do that. All the Pamgren table slots I've seen look normal, with the edges nearly square (inside and out), and thick webs for the dovetails.

The table pictured in the eBay ad looks nice on top, which is typical of that sort of stuff. It seems that most of the low-end stuff is produced to have the most obvious features appear attractive. The Ms. Swan character from MadTV would say "it looky like a.. (X-Y table)".

WB ...........

WHere are you located? I have a slide table that I aquired at an auction. The slide table was the the preceeding lot to the one I wanted and since no one bid at the autioneer's minimum, it was lumped into the next lot (the one that I bought). The table is about 12 inch square w/o any T-slots, has 2 tapped holes that retained a tapping plate. I'm guessing that it has about 4 to 5 inches of travel in each axis (I've never looked at it that closely, I have no immediate use for it but it was way too nice to leave behind at the auction site, I've toyed w/ using it to make a light duty surface grinder). USA made but I do not remember the brand off hand. It is heavy and I am in the Detroit area. If interested, contact me and I will get the particulars.