Pretty fun little project for the day on a lathe barely big enough to do the job.

My rotary table has been barely used in the last 25 years. I wanted to mount a lathe chuck to it for a while to make it easier to use for little projects. I bought a Shars 6" three jaw and a scrap of aluminum close to the 200mm diameter of my rotary table. 7 7/8" worked perfectly. It was thicker than I needed but it won't hurt anything.

I also used my faceplate for the first time so I had to face it off, I bored the bore a bit to true it up, and I turned the diameter.

Then I could make the adapter plate dead on. I made sure not to remove it through the whole project.

The saw cut plate had to be shimmed to sit flat  enough to be tightened without warping. I literally used a wood shim. If it works it ain't dumb. Lol!

I dialed in the rotary table with a gauge pin in the chuck. I was able to get it well within 0.0005" on two different diameter pins.

I can use a similar method to center the rotary table under the spindle.

It was a relaxing project in my home shop. It came out very well and I can't wait to try it out.

Does anyone know if I can buy a set of dividing plates for this rotary table?

I just found out I can get the dividing plates for this rotary table on Amazon for $81.

Shit....I was hoping you meant Schumer....

Nice work.

When I want to indicate the center of rotation super-dead-nuts on the 5 axis machines at work, I'll mount the indicator to the table with a mag base and put the stylus up inside the spindle taper and spin the rotary. This eliminates error from the 3-jaw chuck and gets you damn close to the actual center (subject to the runout of the spindle bearings and how good the machine is trammed).

But I wouldn't want to do it by manually cranking that thing.

Lucky!

I have a big Bridgeport rotab that I wish I could find the divider kit for.

Right now I have my chuck dead nuts on the table.

If I throw the part in the chuck I can crank the handle with an indicator against the part and get it dead nuts to the table rotation if it's off due to chuck error. Then I can dial in the part to the spindle via x and y.

That means near zero run out as long as the part isn't removed from the chuck. If there is any imperfections in the chuck I can dial it in before centering the part under the spindle.

That means if I want to cut a gear I can get with a gnats ass of dead true.

You can get concentric, but the tooth profile will never be true.  

I must be lost. A gear hob won't cut a decent profile? I've never cut a gear myself but I have helped my friend do a few.

I would run an indicator along the blank on the sides and top so it is true to the axis of rotation. Maybe tap it in if I needed to. If the jaws are straight it will be pretty precise.

A hob will do an excellent job, I was thinking you intended to use a form cutter.

I was just going to buy the cutters as I need them unless I find some crazy cheap. I have a 1" arbor to run them in my mill.

I just finished buying the stuff to convert the rotary table to stepper control. I just need to buy a few more things to finish the conversion once all the stuff arrives.

I'm using the assembled module and keyboard from this place.

https://www.worldofward.com/rotarycontroller/

My buddy has a Nema 42 stepper I can have. I ordered the driver and cord off this company.

https://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/

I gotta order a chunk of aluminum for the adapter I need to machine. Then pick out an electrical box.

I think I'm going to do a second plate with an 8" chuck just to put directly on the table to hold round stuff that does not need to turn.



I have the stepper motor, driver, motor wire, coupler in hand and the aluminum for the adapter and the control is on its way. Just have to buy a box.

Big chunk of aluminum in a little lathe. 6" diameter x 6" long.



Cutting this down in my little lathe sucked big time. It took me a while to find a happy place with a chip breaker hss tool to get the chips to come off in a manageable way. If I tried to take a bigger cut to break a chip I would pop the fuse. Turns out they started with a smaller fuse than they should have.

I put a center in it after I faced it off. That helped with rigidity but not power.

Little lathe problems!

Lathe work done.



Now off to the mill. I stole my 6" lathe chuck off my rotary table. My plate and 8" lathe chuck will be in next week. That would have given me more bite.

0.1" passes were too much. I almost pulled it out of the chuck. When I reseated it I accidentally threw off the clocking a few degrees.

All the hole patterns came out spot on. Good thing I checked the factory print on the stepper before I drilled the holes....I used two gauge pins in the holes and measured and got the pattern spot on. Thank God I checked. The chuck made this stupid easy.




It still turned out okay.




Now for the electronics part. I still haven't ordered the box yet. I have everything else.

I'm making progress. All I need now is for my buddy to come help me wire it up. Should be running tomorrow afternoon.





The guy from World of Ward was surprised I'm running such a huge stepper. I really really don't want marginal power and I hate losing steps. I may also someday need to power something else. The motor will be plugged in so it's easy to buy another motor and plug it into this controller and I'm ready to go. If I get a bigger rotary table I know I can run it.

https://youtu.be/jpv-AYL3yYY