- Joined
- Dec 30, 2018
- Messages
- 73
After a couple of months of being too busy to spend time in my workshop, I got a new rotary table for my sx2 milling machine.
The one that I got is a six inch phase 2.
Initially I was a bit concerned that the table will be too big for the mini mill, but after fitting it, everything seems to work out ok.
This specific rotary table is the only one that was locally available.
Overall I am extremely happy with it: the thing is built like a tank and the handwheel operation is exceptionally smooth and accurate. The locking levers lock the table securely in place with absolutely no movement.
When filling it with oil, I guess I overdid it a bit since it had a tendency to leak out the excess oil but it has now stopped and the oil level is centered in the sight glass.
In this photo it looks like the rotary table hangs off the front a lot - probably the camera fov. In fact it is pretty well balanced.
The mill seems to handle the weight of the rotary table ok - the x and y hand wheels are obviously a little bit stiffer but nothing too extreme. As a precaution I just make sure that all the dovetails are well lubricated.
I can mount my small grinding vise on top of the rotary table - this becomes a very high setup and eats up most of the horizontal travel on the mill, but overall the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Sweeping the top of the grinding vise (on top of the rotary table) I get an error of 0.002 inch over a distance of about 7 inches which is good enough for me.
Being able to accurately rotate the vise through 360 degrees makes it easier to handle and machine longer parts: if something is too long, I rotate 90 degrees and mill using another axis.
Aligning the vise is also a very quick operation:
1. Indicate the center of the fixed face and set the test indicator to 0.
2. Sweep to the side and rotate the table until you also get 0.
Done.
The only problem I have is with drilling since some of the larger drills are too long. I will have to shop around for a couple of shorter drills at some stage.
At the moment I am building a clamping kit for use on the rotary table when the vise is removed. I have already made an mt2 tapered plug for the hole in the table to assist with centering everything.
Made 4 brass t nuts last night and I am now experimenting with clamping setups....
The one that I got is a six inch phase 2.
Initially I was a bit concerned that the table will be too big for the mini mill, but after fitting it, everything seems to work out ok.
This specific rotary table is the only one that was locally available.
Overall I am extremely happy with it: the thing is built like a tank and the handwheel operation is exceptionally smooth and accurate. The locking levers lock the table securely in place with absolutely no movement.
When filling it with oil, I guess I overdid it a bit since it had a tendency to leak out the excess oil but it has now stopped and the oil level is centered in the sight glass.
In this photo it looks like the rotary table hangs off the front a lot - probably the camera fov. In fact it is pretty well balanced.
The mill seems to handle the weight of the rotary table ok - the x and y hand wheels are obviously a little bit stiffer but nothing too extreme. As a precaution I just make sure that all the dovetails are well lubricated.
I can mount my small grinding vise on top of the rotary table - this becomes a very high setup and eats up most of the horizontal travel on the mill, but overall the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Sweeping the top of the grinding vise (on top of the rotary table) I get an error of 0.002 inch over a distance of about 7 inches which is good enough for me.
Being able to accurately rotate the vise through 360 degrees makes it easier to handle and machine longer parts: if something is too long, I rotate 90 degrees and mill using another axis.
Aligning the vise is also a very quick operation:
1. Indicate the center of the fixed face and set the test indicator to 0.
2. Sweep to the side and rotate the table until you also get 0.
Done.
The only problem I have is with drilling since some of the larger drills are too long. I will have to shop around for a couple of shorter drills at some stage.
At the moment I am building a clamping kit for use on the rotary table when the vise is removed. I have already made an mt2 tapered plug for the hole in the table to assist with centering everything.
Made 4 brass t nuts last night and I am now experimenting with clamping setups....