# moving 12" rotary table



## oscer (Jun 20, 2011)

My son just gave me a 12" rotary table for fathers day, after cleaning it up I'm thinking this would make a perfect finger smasher while putting on and taking off the mill. so does anyone have an ingenious way of moving these things around? 
I'm not sure if it would be a good idea to lift it by the t-slots or not. I thought about standing it up and slinging with a 1/2" rope through the center hole. I think that may be the way to go.


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## Tony Wells (Jun 20, 2011)

Tee slots and a pair of eye bolts work just fine. Think about the force involved when clamping a part. 200 lbs is not a lot. I say 2 eye bolts only if you can't find a way to balance it by using the center hole. I have been known to chuck a good sized eye bolt in a 3 jaw mounted on an indexer, even on a larger one. Moved many a RT up to 24" with eye bolts in the tee slots too. No worries. Just make sure they won't slide out.


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## Carl_in_NH (Jun 20, 2011)

Agree with Tee-slots and eye-bolts on the table end. A small block and tackle, chainfall, or other lifting device with a barn door track mounted to the rafters above the mill and leading over to a storage area can be a real back saver. Mount securly, and use a quality track and door hardware to build a backsaver.

You can also weld up a little jib crane - but that tends to take up more usable shop space down where the machines are.


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## oscer (Jun 20, 2011)

Thanks for the quick responses fellas, I put it on the bench by hand the other day, the worse part was lifting out of my sons car. This evening I tied a square knot with a slip through the center hole and picked up with my chain hoist. Carl, I have a set up exactly as you described. I first thought of it when I needed to move my 60" JD mower deck across the shed. That was before we poured the concrete floor. So when we built the addon for the machine toolls I put one above the spot for the mill.


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## jmarkwolf (Mar 19, 2019)

I have a Sky Hook jib crane on a cart for that task. They're kinda pricey ( I got a smoking deal on Craigs list), but I always thought one of those pick-up truck bed cranes from Harbor Freight could be employed with a little ingenuity.


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## Radials (Mar 19, 2019)

An engine hoist is invaluable in the shop


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## Latinrascalrg1 (Mar 19, 2019)

I recall an elderly neighbor who was always tinkering in the garage adopting a very useful  "cherry picker" type crane design that goes back in time a few years. 
This guy used the roller base of an old office chair that he retrofitted a 2 piece adjustable height pole so that it stood vertically on its own, max height was probably around 5 feet. He then attached a swivel joint he made using pillow block bearings (i think thats what they are called) onto the top where he mounted a horizontal beam (i guess that's what it would be called maybe???) that had a hook mounted to one end and a way to mount some weighted plates to the back end. Now this oldguy was a junk scrapper and would load and unload thousands of pounds of scrap weekly from his truck and trailer and that Crane of his was the backbone of his operation.  It worked really well and rolled smoothly enough for him even on his concrete driveway  that he never even thought about trying to improve on it.  Anyway i can see a version of this being easily made to help swing a vise or RT from the self to the mill without much hassle.


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## Cadillac (Mar 19, 2019)

Get yourself a "toolcart" and when you wanna put it on the mill lower or raise the table to the same height as cart and slide in on the table. Let the machine do the work.


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## Superburban (Mar 19, 2019)

Thats what I use for a lot of big piece moving. Adjust it to the right height, and slide the table off the shelving,  then take it over to the mill, raise it to the right height, and slide it onto the mill. This is not the one I have, but close enough to give everyone the idea of what I use.


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## Dabbler (Mar 20, 2019)

+1 to Cadillac's answer:  here's how I have done it in the past...

You have a mill that you use regularly, and have a specific height that works for milling with your vice.  If you have a different height for use with the table, then use that for your reference height.  Take a measurement of that Height. That was step 1.

Step 2: I repurposed NEMA computer racks for this but anything will do, but make/buy/adapt a rolling cart with a height that you can fasten some strips of nylon, or my favourite, an HDPE top to it that is exactly at the height mentioned in step 1.

In Use: You keep the table on the roll away for storage, and then move it to one end of your mill table and SLIDE it onto your mill table.  No crushed fingers, no hanging, swinging rotary table.  No fiddling with lifting systems etc.  It just works. oh - and under the top you can store your indexer, or other low-use tooling!


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## uncle harry (Mar 20, 2019)

Cadillac said:


> Get yourself a "toolcart" and when you wanna put it on the mill lower or raise the table to the same height as cart and slide in on the table. Let the machine do the work.




I lucked out on local craigslist  & bought a hydraulic lift table for $100.  It has a foot pump to raise and lower a 16" square sheet steel top.  It lets me get right up to the table to slide a turntable etc off   and roll nearby to a bench top to slide off onto a sheet of HVAC tin screwed to the surface.  I have also used it to move a 18 X 24 granite surfce plate from a guys garage 50 feet to my trunk.  It also serves well as a portable tool-holding surface by the mill etc.


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## hermetic (Mar 20, 2019)

I use one of these, it has saved fingers and back on many occasions!


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## jmanatee (Mar 20, 2019)

I use a lift table too (or I have my son help me)


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## ezduzit (Mar 20, 2019)

Keep it simple. I simply store mine where I can crank the mill table over to it and slide it into place.


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