I've been needing to buy a rotary table for use with my Grizzly
Mill/Drill. Been thinking along the lines of an 8". I will need to
mount a chuck to it. Can any of you offer some advice? How do I mount a
chuck to the table? Will I have to make a specisl backing plate with
holes to line up with the slots on the table? Would I be better off
just trying to clamp a 6" four-jaw with studs and T-nuts? How do you
more expierence guys do this?

Gerry wrote:
I've been needing to buy a rotary table for use with my Grizzly
Mill/Drill. Been thinking along the lines of an 8". I will need to
mount a chuck to it. Can any of you offer some advice? How do I mount a
chuck to the table? Will I have to make a specisl backing plate with
holes to line up with the slots on the table? Would I be better off
just trying to clamp a 6" four-jaw with studs and T-nuts? How do you
more expierence guys do this?


Most RTS have 4 radial slots for clamping. Most 4-jaw chucks have 4 bolts for
clamping. Simple. Center the table on the mill, put T-nuts in the 4 slots, bolt
the chuck on, center the chuck body, tighten.

3-jaw chucks are tougher.

GWE

Gerry wrote:
I've been needing to buy a rotary table for use with my Grizzly
Mill/Drill. Been thinking along the lines of an 8". I will need to
mount a chuck to it. Can any of you offer some advice? How do I mount a
chuck to the table? Will I have to make a specisl backing plate with
holes to line up with the slots on the table? Would I be better off
just trying to clamp a 6" four-jaw with studs and T-nuts? How do you
more expierence guys do this?


Hi Gerry,

I've just done this with a Vertex 6" table which has a four tee slots
and a 2MT hole in the centre.

I turned a lump of steel into a disc with a Boxford spindle nose screw
thread in the centre, complete with a hole. Four holes near the edge to
hold it down to the rotary table using bolts and T-nuts.

Then I made a 2 morse taper bar (kind of like a test bar). Stick this
in the centre hole, mount a chuck to the plate, put the plate on the
rotary table, grip the bar with the chuck and then tighten down the plate.

Apologies for the poor description - I can send you some pictures to
make it clear if you like.

There are probably other (likely better!) ways of doing it though...


Cheers,

Jez.

"Grant Erwin" wrote in message
...

Most RTS have 4 radial slots for clamping. Most 4-jaw chucks have 4 bolts
for clamping. Simple. Center the table on the mill, put T-nuts in the 4
slots, bolt the chuck on, center the chuck body, tighten.

3-jaw chucks are tougher.

Not much. Machine a backing plate with 4 holes outboard and three holes
inboard to receive the chuck. Or if you're lucky, I bought a small Bison
3-jaw for my 4" table and also a pre-machined adapter plate. In either
case, then proceed as above to center.

Of course, if your table has 6 slots (common) or 3 slots (rare) then
the three-jaw is easy and the 4-jaw requires and adapter plate.

One trick to help center the chuck when you mount it on the table.
Make up an arbor with an MT#2 (or whatever the table's center hole taper
is) on one end and straight, about 1/2" diameter on the other, long enough
to poke out through the chuck with a bit left over. Pop the MT plug into
the table's center hole. Drop (gently) the chuck, which has been opened to
clear the plug, over the plug. Now tighten the chuck. It should be nicely
centered. Then tighten up the hold-down bolts.

Boris


--

-------------------------------------
Boris Beizer Ph.D. Seminars and Consulting
1232 Glenbrook Road on Software Testing and
Huntingdon Valley, PA 19006 Quality Assurance

TEL: 215-572-5580
FAX: 215-886-0144
Email bsquare "at" earthlink.net

------------------------------------------

A note about my 10" vertex and my neighbours 6" vertex rotary table,
although both have an MT taper in the centre it is removable and once
removed the table has a plain bore through the centre. The MT centre
piece is a top hat shaped insert. Much easier to make adapters for the
pain bore than a MT.

Jez wrote:

Gerry wrote:

I've been needing to buy a rotary table for use with my Grizzly
Mill/Drill. Been thinking along the lines of an 8". I will need to
mount a chuck to it. Can any of you offer some advice? How do I mount a
chuck to the table? Will I have to make a specisl backing plate with
holes to line up with the slots on the table? Would I be better off
just trying to clamp a 6" four-jaw with studs and T-nuts? How do you
more expierence guys do this?


Hi Gerry,

I've just done this with a Vertex 6" table which has a four tee slots
and a 2MT hole in the centre.

I turned a lump of steel into a disc with a Boxford spindle nose screw
thread in the centre, complete with a hole. Four holes near the edge
to hold it down to the rotary table using bolts and T-nuts.

Then I made a 2 morse taper bar (kind of like a test bar). Stick this
in the centre hole, mount a chuck to the plate, put the plate on the
rotary table, grip the bar with the chuck and then tighten down the
plate.

Apologies for the poor description - I can send you some pictures to
make it clear if you like.

There are probably other (likely better!) ways of doing it though...


Cheers,

Jez.