What to look for in a used rotary table?

[projectnut]

Spindle nose to table clearance on my Bridgeport BR2J is 18 1/2". I've been close a few times, but always able to get the part milled. If it was just an inch shorter it might have made the difference between working and not working.

 

[RobertHaas]

I have a 16": Bridgport rotary table. It is for sale to anybody strong enough to load it in their truck

 

[silverchips]

I have to ask how big is your Mill? That has a great deal to do with the size you get. The table has to be large enough to hold the work while still allowing enough room for your tooling.

I have to totally agree with Mikey.
We can be guilty about having a super cool looking rotary table in our shop but most that can be found for sale used are too big and sits in a corner unused collecting dust. Height is another big issue and usually proportional to the diameter so take that into consideration of how much daylight your mill has and the projects you envision using it for. 8" of daylight is not much but it's a horizontal mill which is less of an issue than with a vertical mill.
Two other things to look for is a rotary table can also mount vertical as well as horz. and that the table has a center hole with a taper (MT3 taper or something ) to hold tooling. This will greatly expand it uses and options on a home mill.

 

[jmcghee]

FWIW I have an old 9” troyke for a 48” table Bridgeport and it’s absolutely perfect. Any smaller would be too small, any bigger too big

 

[projectnut]

Keep in mind size is a relative thing. Things that seem large to some people are just the right size for others. The company I worked for stored excess machinery in a warehouse owned by a local moving and storage company. In one end of the building was a 36' diameter Niles Vertical Boring Mill. The University of Wisconsin had purchased it from the Harnischfeger Company in Milwaukee when they were bidding on the super collider project. They lost the bid and sold the mill at auction for peanuts.

The new owner thought he was going to make a killing cutting it up for scrap. He hired several contractors to do the job, but they all failed. He finally hired a consultant to determine the best way to break it into pieces small enough to be sent to a foundry.

The consultant determined that the castings were so thick about the only way to break it up was to use directional explosives. Unfortunately the cost of breaking it up exceeded the scrap value. He defaulted on the storage bill and the mill became the property of the moving and storage company. As far as I know it's still setting there.

 

[Meta Key]

FWIW I have an old 9” troyke for a 48” table Bridgeport and it’s absolutely perfect. Any smaller would be too small, any bigger too big

Agreed! I have the same 9" Troyke and it works great on my Clausing 8520 mill. Easy to handle, the weight and size are perfect as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, yeah, I forgot --- pics or it didn't happen:




Probably 10, 15 years ago. Maybe 20.. Still have the Clausing and that rotary table. They both still look the same today; unfortunately I do not!

I don't use the rotary in a vertical fashion. I have an Ellis dividing head for that sort of thing.

-MK

 

[JohnG]

I read a lot of good advice on this subject on H-M before I bought this 8" Kamakura table. It seems just the right size for a horizontal table on my mill, but I think it would be big and awkward as a vertical table.


I stripped it, painted it gray to match my Millrite, and made 4 T nuts for the table slots. Here's its first job milling a 4" diameter relief in the end of a repurposed piece of 7" x 7"x 3/16" wall steel channel. A pair of these will be guards for very scary woodworking cutters. I wasn't sure about fixturing this on a wooden block, but it worked nicely.

 

[ezduzit]

Get as large a rotary table as you can fit on your machine.
The first part I ever made on a milling machine required the use of a rotary table. Fortunately I had found a used 12" Troyke vertical/horizontal in excellent condition, for use on my ancient Index mill. This aluminum part is a boom end fitting for a sailboat. Boom diameter is 4".

 

[silverchips]

I have to agree about using the largest rotary table possible, just as long as it fits the mill table and means to move it around easily.

Interesting fitting, a round section for a boom with 2 reef lines and outhaul with only a small 4" dia. section. Nice job and very rare to see quality work like that being done in MDR. I like the detail on capturing the sheave pin.

Get as large a rotary table as you can fit on your machine.
The first part I ever made on a milling machine required the use of a rotary table. Fortunately I had found a used 12" Troyke vertical/horizontal in excellent condition, for use on my ancient Index mill. This aluminum part is a boom end fitting for a sailboat. Boom diameter is 4".

 

[ezduzit]

...Interesting fitting, a round section for a boom with 2 reef lines and outhaul with only a small 4" dia. section. Nice job and very rare to see quality work like that being done in MDR. I like the detail on capturing the sheave pin.

Thank you. I milled a slot for the sheave pin cap, so there is no load on the retaining screw. The sheave pin I turned on the lathe and press fitted it into the cap before welding. That was also my first lathe project. Got into machining very late in life. I'm 75; this was just a few years ago.