Vertex 8" Rotory Table Help

Here's another pic showing how big, or should I say little, the gap is on my 8". The gap does not change whatsoever when rotating the handwheel assy to disengage/engage the worm on mine. Sorry, my aching back doesn't feel like pulling the thing out of the drawer right now to take a proper pic. :)

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When looking for a vise would I be better off getting an 8" vs a 6"? I am looking at a Vertex brand 3 jaw front mount and the difference in price is about $50.
You said you prefer to mount your chuck on an adapter plate. Why is that?
 
When looking for a vise would I be better off getting an 8" vs a 6"? I am looking at a Vertex brand 3 jaw front mount and the difference in price is about $50.
You said you prefer to mount your chuck on an adapter plate. Why is that?
Chuck size would be your personal preference & depends what you work on. 8" would give you more capacity but is heavier & more expensive. I'm using a 6.3" chuck & it has been fine for me, I've yet to run into a case where I needed something bigger. And the RT is already heavy, when I move it I take the chuck off.

I like the adapter plate cause I can mount the chuck directly on my mill table. Comes in pretty handy for me.

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I also made an adapter for my mag chuck but I have not needed to use it on my RT or on the mill yet.
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First of all, that sure is some nice equipment you have there! What mill is that you own?

Not having ever used a rotary table before, I was thinking I would be using the chuck more in the vertical position( of the rotary table) and was thinking I really don't know what might come along so for $50 more it might be better to have the extra capacity.
I ran a CNC VMC for the last 25 years and on the last machine we had a fixture plate installed over the T slot table. 3/4" threaded holes alternating with 3/4" hardened bushings for pin placement (1200 holes?) and 1-2 8" Kurt vises as required. For drilling rings up to 30" we would bump it up against 2 pins sitting on strategically placed risers and clamp as needed. For cylinders up to 10" we clamped them in the vise with V block jaws fastened. We could have used a chuck but we had other machines to handle that but we could have sure used one at times!

I guess I have that large part mentality ingrained in my head from all those years and 1,000's of parts. I still haven't seen my mill ,PM940, so the size difference may open my eyes and make things much more clear as to the size of parts I can tackle. I think a 6" chuck might be best as I may hardly use it. Like I said I just lack knowledge about this home equipment stuff. Certainly a new journey for me and looking forward to it!
 
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Chuck size would be your personal preference & depends what you work on. 8" would give you more capacity but is heavier & more expensive. I'm using a 6.3" chuck & it has been fine for me, I've yet to run into a case where I needed something bigger. And the RT is already heavy, when I move it I take the chuck off.

I like the adapter plate cause I can mount the chuck directly on my mill table. Comes in pretty handy for me.

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I also made an adapter for my mag chuck but I have not needed to use it on my RT or on the mill yet.
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:you suck:

I just love those chucks
 
Chuck size would be your personal preference & depends what you work on. 8" would give you more capacity but is heavier & more expensive. I'm using a 6.3" chuck & it has been fine for me, I've yet to run into a case where I needed something bigger. And the RT is already heavy, when I move it I take the chuck off.

I like the adapter plate cause I can mount the chuck directly on my mill table. Comes in pretty handy for me.

View attachment 369943
View attachment 369944
View attachment 369945


I also made an adapter for my mag chuck but I have not needed to use it on my RT or on the mill yet.
View attachment 369946
Dark,how does those yellow strips in the t-slots work,are they telescopic somehow or do you have different lengths?
 
First of all, that sure is some nice equipment you have there! What mill is that you own?

Not having ever used a rotary table before, I was thinking I would be using the chuck more in the vertical position( of the rotary table) and was thinking I really don't know what might come along so for $50 more it might be better to have the extra capacity.
I ran a CNC VMC for the last 25 years and on the last machine we had a fixture plate installed over the T slot table. 3/4" threaded holes alternating with 3/4" hardened bushings for pin placement (1200 holes?) and 1-2 8" Kurt vises as required. For drilling rings up to 30" we would bump it up against 2 pins sitting on strategically placed risers and clamp as needed. For cylinders up to 10" we clamped them in the vise with V block jaws fastened. We could have used a chuck but we had other machines to handle that but we could have sure used one at times!

I guess I have that large part mentality ingrained in my head from all those years and 1,000's of parts. I still haven't seen my mill ,PM940, so the size difference may open my eyes and make things much more clear as to the size of parts I can tackle. I think a 6" chuck might be best as I may hardly use it. Like I said I just lack knowledge about this home equipment stuff. Certainly a new journey for me and looking forward to it!
Thanks. It's just a PM45M w/ power downfeed, the predecessor to the PM932. Just a China mill/drill but it has been good to me. I got it back when QMT did not offer all the Taiwan models yet & is what I could afford at the time. I plan to replace it someday but probably not anytime soon.

I have not needed to use my RT in the vertical position yet. I use a super spacer mostly for that which I bought before the RT. I thought about getting a super indexer (super spacer & RT in one unit) but they're heavy & I thought it would be too large for my mill mostly. I'm glad I went with a seperate super spacer & RT instead, I don't enjoy lifting my super spacer anymore & I use it much more than my RT.


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Dark,how does those yellow strips in the t-slots work,are they telescopic somehow or do you have different lengths?
The t-slot covers come 6 in a set. I cut them to certain lengths to accommodate my vise & other accessories. They're made by Vertex also. I got them from Supra Machine/Acer.

I got really sick of cleaning t-slots. :) The holes are to allow coolant to drain but I have not used my flood coolant system yet. I love these things. I even bought a spare set from Grizzly (less expensive & Supra/Acer's prices have gone way up) & they look exactly the same, I suspect theirs are made by Vertex too, they just come in their own Grizzly packaging.

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Here you can see where I relieved the middle ones to clear my vise t-nuts.
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I made them in sections so I can remove certain sections for things like my table mounted stop.
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I think they are super cool. Can you remember what they cost? I am going to check if there is something like that available around here.
 
I think they are super cool. Can you remember what they cost? I am going to check if there is something like that available around here.
I forget what I paid, I think I paid $30 shipped but it's been so long I don't remember. Mine are the 14mm width. Prices vary for the different sizes.

The price right now for the size I have from the same vendor I purchased from is $31 + $19.50 shipping to me (I could of sworn I seen em for over $40 from them though for the same size).

Current price from Grizzly is $35.95 not including shipping. My spare set that I bought from Grizzly I paid $28.95 in Sep 2019.

I've have since seen other t-slot covers on ebay but beware of those who are selling universal style covers. Those don't sit below the table's surface like in the picture below. I suppose they would still work fine but these Vertex ones sit below the tables surface so you can still mount stuff on top of them if that matters to you.

I just searched T-slot cover on ebay & saw these pictured below, hopefully there's something that will pop up in your area or at least ship to you.

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