"David Billington" wrote in message
...
Wild_Bill wrote:
Mounting a workpiece directly to a rigid, T-slotted tilting table would
likely serve the needs of most home shop machinists.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Milling-Mach...-/180641121361

I bought a nice used USA 8x6" table for about $60 IIRC, several years
ago, and it's suitable for mounting other tooling to if needed.. but a
more rigid mount with the workpiece clamped directly to the table.

For tiny workpieces, I have a pivot-pin type slotted tilt table about 4"
square, or angle vises to use.

The trunnion with integral rotary table looks interesting, but I can't
think of much use for it.

I've seen video, most likely on youtube, of them being used to machine
miniature gas turbine rotors or the wax master for lost wax casting. The
item looked very much like a turbocharger rotor.

Once you have the CNC rotary table, however, you already have the multi-axis
functionality. Then all that particular trunnion seems to give you is a way
to hang a vise out there in space.

My guess is that the current generation of machinists is a lot more
comfortable with vises than with angle plates and clamps. The same is true
with faceplates on a lathe. Some people will jump through hoops to fixture
something on a mill, or in a lathe chuck, that's a piece of cake with a
faceplate.

--
Ed Huntress