Manual Rotary Table

[steamingbill]

Hello,

After seeing a few different manual turntables on the web I had a go myself using a bearing and a cast iron gym weight.

Am a newb to making useful things on the lathe and mill - the guts of what I did is shown in the photos - I need to learn how to finish things off better and generally make things look a bit tidier and smarter.

It works ok but the slot has a ragged finish - maybe thats the nature of slot cutting - this was my first attempt at cutting any slots - next time will undercut the slot width and then tidy with an end mill to final width and also pay more attention to clearing the swarf.

Next job is to get some silver steel and make a wormscrew and use it as a hob to cut a wormwheel and have it drive the rotary table - it is a bit juddery and grabby turning around by hand.

The handle goes right through to the centre to help secure the plate to the bearing.

The bearing has approx 0.001" end play so I cut a shim of the right thickness and put it underneath (between bottom of bearing and mill table) to eliminate the end play.

I ended up making the worlds longest grubscrew, drilling a radial hole from the plate circumference and securing the weight to the bearing from the circumference of the plate. That seemed a bit better than running the grubscrew from the inside of the bearing as shown in the photos.

Any hints tips suggestions welcome.

Bill

[DIYer]

Thanks steamingbill! We've added your Manual Rotary Table to our Machining category, as well as to your builder page: steamingbill's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Manual Rotary Table by steamingbill

tags: rotary table

[owen moore]

That is a very clever repurpose for a gym weight. Nice project you built there! You will like having a rotary turn table, as it adds a whole new dimension to what you can make. Old barbell weights also make good flywheel blanks for steam and hit and miss engines.