Thread: Rotary Table questons

Nope. But I can sell you one
Not sure of the price of the cast one, I'm going there this afternoon and am going to have a dig through their off cuts, so it may not be much help as it depends what they have laying around.
I priced the Alum 2011 $20.90 including for 120mm Dia x 50mm, $25.30 for 130mm Dia
Stuart

I was just interested in the price of cast as Pipe Clay said it was a lot cheaper than hollow I priced.
I have a piece of 150mm round x 450mm long 2011 aluminium a mate gave me as payment for machining and polishing a couple of Harley fuel caps for him.. Worth something up around $450-$600 going by online prices. I am trying to think of a worth while project to use it for.

Dave

Dave,

Tell me a bit about 2011. I've only machined aluminium a couple of times. Bit messy for my taste. Too much swarf.

BT

150mm would be good Dave. It will let you pick up all 6 slots on your 10 inch table and the bolts will be outside the Dia of the back face of the chuck which will allow you to adjust it while the chuck is on should you ever need to. I'm thinking about either machining the sides so I can get an open ended spanner onto the bolt heads or going to 150mm myself. Depends what they have I guess.
I'm also going to bore a hole in the center like the lathe spindle. It might be handy if I ever need something long in the chuck. I think trying to put an MT5 taper on the inside would be going a little over the top.
While we are talking about tapers, the MT3 taper in my table seems to not be part of the table casting. Do you know if it can be knocked out?

Stuart

2011 is Free machining(I think its the lead that does it)
So it should form chips not long springs
http://www.suppliersonline.com/propertypages/2011.asp
I'm sure Dave can add more

Stuart

Bob,
Come on mess and swarf after all that cast iron machining.lol The aluminium machines so nice and polishes up beautiful.

Stuart
I wont be using the aluminium for the adapter, I think aluminium would be prone to dings, scratches. I have 150mm steel here to use for it and I think I have some SS in that size as well. I also need to make one for the horizontal spindle on the mill, so I can fit chucks to it as well.
My plans are to bore a hole as well, but thinking about it a MT5 could be handy in it as well if there is enough depth? (good thinking).
I do plan on making a MT3 arbour with a disk on it to make centering it on the rotary table easy, I have done for the adapters for the chucks.
The center piece for the MT 3 looks to be pressed in and ground in place, I wouldn't mess with it. I would say they put this piece of steel in so it's not just soft cast iron that could easily be damaged, it looks hardened to me though I haven't put a file to it. Any reason you want it out?

Dave

Oh of course. I'm only planning on making one out of alum as practice. I should wait until I see how much the cast costs. Might not be much more to practice on the real thing.
Mmmmm SS now that would be pretty.

The only thing I have that will go into an MT5 is the MT5-MT3 adaptor that came with the lathe, as there is a MT3 in the table already I didn't see the point. Couldnt hurt much I guess if it will fit as you say, and I can use the practice
The longest pin on any of my camlocs is 34.5mm so the plate has to be thicker than that, its not adding that much to the depth of the chucks I guess.

Not reason to want the MT3 out, just wondering if I could. After what you have said it's best left alone.

Thanks

Stuart

I wouldn't bother with the aluminium as it will only add to the cost. I have machined a chuck to suit the D1-4 and it is not that hard, just make sure you buy a bit more than you need to leave a bit of material to work with.
The way I would do it is set up the compound to the taper on your lathe spindle before you start. Face both sides then roughly cut it back then work on the taper, if you undercut take a bit more off the back to get it right (this is where the extra material comes in). I like to finish the taper on cast with a bit of emery so it knocks the highs down and leaves a smooth finish that is less likely to wear latter and become too small. After this bore out the centre so it's true to the taper.
When your happy with it and it fit's your chucks, put it on the mill centre it up and use the DRO bolt hole circle to drill the holes, then work on the camlock holes and the ball detent holes. After the holes are finished the back can be faced down to the right height.

Dave

Well I ended up with two pieces of 3D for $20 each. They are 120Dia x 65mm. Almost bought a piece of Alum from him as well as he says its tough as nails(60XX(something) not 2011 like I was going to get from the other place) but it turned out he didn't have any the right size.

Now I need 11mm for the taper, 34.5mm(min) for the pins. So I figure I'll aim for 50mm. Cutting off the extra 15mm will give me something test cutters and the boring bar on if needed. I'll machine one face and the sides to make it look pretty before I cut it off.

Better look up some speeds and feeds for cast I guess.

Stuart

Sounds like a good buy up.

Dave

I remember reading something about machining cast on a lathe. It said you needed to clean all the oil off the lathe first and then clean it again afterwards as the swarf was very abrasive. Does this still apply with hardened ways etc?
Stuart

I just cover the ways up the best I can with cotton rag and leave the oil on the ways. I read the other day of a guy using aluminium foil which I thought was a good idea to try, though the rag stretches and folds with movement.
Even after shaking the cast off, once I use a rag I don't use it on the lathe again.

Dave

They are good prices Stuart. I'm sure I'd be paying double that over here. I have not used 3D. Let us all know what you reckon it's like to machine. I have found some extremely hard spots in some of the 4E I've turned. The blokes out at BU's Steel Store say that it is not uncommon.

I have a sheet of 1mm thick insertion rubber that I drape over the ways while machining the stuff. Hercus 9s are full of nooks and crannies. I use a vacuum cleaner to remove most of the cast iron dust. I remove the saddle and cross slide and make sure everything is spotless. I have done all my cast iron work on my plain bearing lathe. I don't want the dust anywhere near the roller bearings of my other nine.

BT

Originally Posted by Anorak Bob

I don't want the dust anywhere near the roller bearings of my other nine.

Now he tells me

A mate come around with a slab for fitting his winch, of course we had to sample a few which brought work to a close for the evening.

I had it covered with wood tonight but have cleaned it down and fitted alum foil with about 10 small magnets for tomorrow.

I can't see myself removing the saddle. maybe I should switch to alum in future.

As for how it machines, I cant really say as I have only ever drilled holes in cast before. So pictures will have to do.

p.s. I assume Suttons is making their drills in China now? I've included a picture of my new set of drills.

Stuart