- Joined
- Dec 21, 2018
- Messages
- 48
I bought half of this XY table from a member on this forum. It included both indexing hubs, one table, and the base. I wanted a complete set to form the XY table, but some of the prices on ebay are ridiculous. There are two single tables and bases currently listed at $375, and $500, and a complete one at $1,250! So after seeing this I decided to it would be fun to make the second table. I was able to source another lead screw assembly from SBLatheman over on Practical Machinist, which helped a lot, and made the build much easier.
The top portion of the table is made form 4142PH steel, an the bottom is just 1018 cold rolled steel. Hadn't realized the dovetail in the original was offset. I had centered the dovetail in the top half of my table, and when I went to make the bottom half I realized I made a mistake. It only resulted in a slightly larger gib. Aside from this detail its an exact copy of the original. I surface ground the new table to get my cutter marks out, and also touched up the top of the original table to get them to match. The original table was ground, but it had many nicks and dings in it, as well as being rusty, I was even able to trace the SB logo in Fusion 360 and engrave the new table with it. I also polished up the lead screw assemblies, and made new handle nuts for the counterbalanced handles. The originals were chewed up from people taking them off with improper tools.
This will mostly be a collectors piece for me, but I'm sure there will be a rare occasion it will come in handy. It was a fun project which I enjoyed making, and I now have a full South Bend XY table at a fraction of what they're going for now.
The top portion of the table is made form 4142PH steel, an the bottom is just 1018 cold rolled steel. Hadn't realized the dovetail in the original was offset. I had centered the dovetail in the top half of my table, and when I went to make the bottom half I realized I made a mistake. It only resulted in a slightly larger gib. Aside from this detail its an exact copy of the original. I surface ground the new table to get my cutter marks out, and also touched up the top of the original table to get them to match. The original table was ground, but it had many nicks and dings in it, as well as being rusty, I was even able to trace the SB logo in Fusion 360 and engrave the new table with it. I also polished up the lead screw assemblies, and made new handle nuts for the counterbalanced handles. The originals were chewed up from people taking them off with improper tools.
This will mostly be a collectors piece for me, but I'm sure there will be a rare occasion it will come in handy. It was a fun project which I enjoyed making, and I now have a full South Bend XY table at a fraction of what they're going for now.
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