Bill
I have never found that I needed the rotary plate. My press never came with it and even though at the time I worked in a shore where I could have gotten a import rotary plate cheap, I never figured I would need it. I use, 99.99% of the time the 8" bearing separator that I made in Millwright school. That plate has been sitting on that press day in and day out since I got it.
if you look in pictures I posted, there are two other plates I use, in the cabinet, centre section, there is a plate that is about 5 x 10 that has a few holes drilled in it. This is a Milwaukee press plate. More often, there is a round plate with series of holes in it that hangs on a magnetic hook at the back of the throat of the press. This is used over the Bearing plate if I need to press something and need to surround the shaft.
The sleeves are also very handy as you can press a bearing on or off over a shaft and get the presure on the fixed race. Id for a shaft, OD for the housing. Also you can use a sleeve under the part and one over to get into a cavity.
If it was me, I would not worry about the rotary plate. I would get or make a large sized bearing separator like I have shown. Next, I would find or make as needed a variety of sleeves of various sizes and them along with the wrist pins will give you a good assortment to work with.
FYI, my sleeves range from about 9.55 mm OD x 6.15 mm ID and go upwards to 49.26 mm OD to 42.86 mm ID.
I also have a bunch of chunks of pipe of various size with 4-1/2" dia being used the most for what I do and then up from there that can be used to support stock like shown in the one picture of my buddies shop where he has the pipe with hand cutout in the bottom and a bearing separator on top.
Tony,
Yes, I agree that B-7 threaded rod would be a better choice.
Bear in mind that I made this as a project in millwright school and threading that stuff was part of my grade of my course. Now they did not spec the material, actually they had a bunch of projects they wanted students to make, like a raised face flange. I asked the instructor what they were going to use the raised face flange for when I completed it, cause I really did not have a use for it. His answer is that it would be thrown into the metal scrap bin. Since I really did not see any reason to make something, spend all that time doing a really nice job and then have it melted down, I asked if I could come up with few other projects. I handed him plans for the bearing separators, the vee plates and an engine hoist. They had equal or harder design, layout and machining skills involved, and the instructor said, yup yup and build three of the hoists. I got one, the school kept one and the third went home with the instructor. LOL
As for the rod, when I was out getting scrounging / buying / stealing material, that is what a buddies shop offered me as something that would work. Yes it worked, but it was knarly stuff to machine.
As part of the course every student was issued a few HSS lathe bits and we had to learn how to sharpen them. Well I was working on these bolts and I was having to resharpen them after each pass or every second at the most. The instructor came over and said I'll be right back. He came back with a brazed carbide threading bit and said you know how to sharpen them, but try this one. Well that did the trick and I have never gone back to HSS unless in a pinch. LOL
Walter
