rotary table recommendation

Hi, I need a new 6 inch rotary table and have seen the Vertex offering at a recent show. Also looking at one from Arc Eurotrade which is a bit dearer but looks better made. Any experience with these ? There's also the second hand option but ex-industrial ones all tend to be too big for my needs.

Reply to
lfoggy
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I've got the AET 6inch table, pleased with it. One simple mod was to add a thrust race. Is it better than the Vertex ones? Don't know.

Steve

Reply to
Steve

Hi Ifoggy, I have the Vertex and am happy with it, I also have the tail centre and dividing attachment. The rub was after I bought all the bits they were on offer as a set for very much less than I paid, boo hoo! If you are going to buy a RT,check how many Tee slots it has, some have three, some have four. If yoiu get a four one you can mount a four jaw chuck, which comes in handy sometimes. T.W..

Reply to
the wizard

I also have a Vertex that I'm entirely happy with...but I don't understand why you can't mount a four-jaw chuck on a three slot table?

Reply to
Chris Edwards

.....I should have added to my own post, the Vertex has a 2MT centre hole which can take an adaptor to mount just about anything within reason.

Reply to
Chris Edwards

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Hi Chris, A lot of 4 jaw independant chucks have four holes all the way through the body, something not possible with a three jaw scroll chuck. This means you can simply bolt the chuck on the RT with Allen bolts screwing into Tee nuts in the 4 Tee slots. Ubviously direct mounting to headstock chucks or mounting studs at rear of chuck wont work. I have a six inch independant four jaw that has proved very useful, when mounted on the RT. T.W.

Reply to
the wizard

On Tue, 27 May 2008 14:49:59 -0700 (PDT), the wizard wrote

I'm still not sure what you're saying....I know you can bolt a four-jaw directly to the face of the Vertex...but you can also fit a four-jaw to a spigot fitted in the 2MT centre hole. I have a 4-jaw, with a threaded Myford body, fitted at the moment.

Reply to
Chris Edwards

I suspect that the problem with that is the very significant loss of rigidity.

Mark Rand RTFM

Reply to
Mark Rand

r way!" =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0

Hi again Chris Four Tee slots allow a rigid fitting of a 4Jaw independant chuck . What can you bolt to three Tee slots? My point is, given the option of

3 or 4, 4 is more useful. Ignoring all the debate over 3 or 4 slots, any Rotary Table is better than none, and the Vertex is a solid and accurate bit of kit T.W.
Reply to
the wizard

Hi again Chris Four Tee slots allow a rigid fitting of a 4Jaw independant chuck . What can you bolt to three Tee slots? My point is, given the option of

3 or 4, 4 is more useful. Ignoring all the debate over 3 or 4 slots, any Rotary Table is better than none, and the Vertex is a solid and accurate bit of kit T.W.

Its quite easy to make a backplate one side of which will fix to both a rotary table and to a lathe spindle, and the other side to a 3-jaw and a

4-jaw chuck and even to a collet chuck, which gives a good solution in terms of rigidity and function.

Pat

Reply to
Patrick

I have a 6inch RT from AET which has four slots and comes with a backplate that allows 3 and 4 jaw chucks to be mounted. I didn't realise I had a problem mounting three jaw chucks on my four slot table until I read this thread....

ANyway it's a great table, though more expensive than the vertex.

Steve

Reply to
Steve

Everybody is right, of course. There is certainly less rigidity if the chuck is spigot mounted. However, I'm a modeller rather than a production engineer and my four-jaw chuck on the RT is a small one, four inch diameter, and is only used for 'light' work. As Pat says, it's certainly not beyond the wit of man to produce a 'universal' backplate.

Reply to
Chris Edwards

Another solution to the mounting problem is to simply drill and tap holes in the surface of the rotary table to take the mounting bolts of the 4 jaw chuck if you have only got three T slots. I'm not averse to drilling the odd hole in my tools if necessary.....although many would consider this sacrilege !

Reply to
lfoggy

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