# Picked Up A New Toy, Uh Tool, Today



## JimDawson (May 18, 2015)

I traded about $75 in materials and about an hour of labor for this little guy.  I think it's going to get a stepper motor and encoder hung on it and it's going to be my 4th axis.  Never been used.  Unfortunately, it did not come with the tailstock.

Made in Taiwan, so it may be a small step above some of the hardware out there.  The fit and finish looks good.  Anybody know anything about this brand?  Has the oddest dividing plates I have ever seen.  Looks like a 90:1 worm gear.


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## kd4gij (May 18, 2015)

Nice score     I have never used that brand but have read alot of good post about them.


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## GA Gyro (May 18, 2015)

I have an 8" Vertex RT... not a dividing unit...

Nicely built, tight, and predictable.
A friend has a PhaseII... of the two I prefer the Vertex.


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## chips&more (May 18, 2015)

Good Job! I believe those dividing plates are actually “masks”. And are used for quick indexing of desired divisions as counted by the big notches on the outside perimeter. They get installed in the back and you disengaged the worm…Good Luck, Dave.


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## Ulma Doctor (May 18, 2015)

+1 on the YOU SUCK, Jim...
great score man!!!!


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## JimDawson (May 18, 2015)

Wow!  I just looked up the fleabay prices on these, I guess I got a pretty good deal.


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## darkzero (May 18, 2015)

Nice score Jim! Vertex is probably the best Asian brand you can buy for accessories like this aside from Yuasa & Nikken (Japan). Vertex is made in Taiwan. Much of the Vertex RTs are copies of the Yuasa & is my prefered style. Way better quality than the PhaseII China offers. Your super indexer has Meehanite castings as well as their rotary tables. I originally wanted a super indexer but I came to the conclusion that it was too big for my mill & more importantly I did not want to deal with the weight. As you probably know, a super indexer (aka super indexing spacer or Super-Dex as PhaseII calls it) is a RT & super spacer combined in one unit. Instead I chose to go with an 8" Vertex RT & a seperate 6.5" super spacer.


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## randyc (May 18, 2015)

darkzero said:


> ...I came to the conclusion that it was too big for my mill & more importantly I did not want to deal with the weight...



Good grief, the shoemaker elves must sneak into your shop every night and clean, LOL.  I'm always astounded by your beautiful photos - how could you ever smudge those machines by working with them, ha-ha-ha ?  

Oh yeah, excellent score Jim !!!


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## darkzero (May 18, 2015)

I'm still not sure who comes in to clean the mill. But my lathe is white & blue so I'm pretty sure it's the smurfs who sneak in to clean the lathe for me.


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## mattthemuppet2 (May 19, 2015)

blimey Jim, you must have a much more profitable second career as a lady's professional companion if an hours work and $75 of stuff gets you that! What a score!


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## JimDawson (May 19, 2015)

mattthemuppet said:


> blimey Jim, you must have a much more profitable second career as a lady's professional companion if an hours work and $75 of stuff gets you that! What a score!




<Insert inappropriate comment here> 

This stuff just kind of finds me and follows me home.  This was offered to me a couple of years ago, and at that time I had no use for it, so they set it on the back shelf.  Now I do have a use for it and I just built a small drill fixture for them, sooooo.  I've equipped most of my shop by wheel'n deal'n.


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## bpratl (May 19, 2015)

Great find, looks like a quality rotary table.


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## george wilson (May 19, 2015)

Vertex is a good rotary table. I would caution that I have never found a rotary table that is perfectly square when in the upright position,when compared to good Starrett and perfect old Brown and Sharpe squares. So,don't assume it is when you are doing something serious. Probably necessary to do a bit of shimming.


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## bpratl (May 19, 2015)

george wilson said:


> Vertex is a good rotary table. I would caution that I have never found a rotary table that is perfectly square when in the upright position,when compared to good Starrett and perfect old Brown and Sharpe squares. So,don't assume it is when you are doing something serious. Probably necessary to do a bit of shimming.


 Good point, I'll have to check mine as I assumed it to be square.


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## alloy (May 19, 2015)

kd4gij said:


> Nice score




Yeah...............what he said


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## rcaffin (May 22, 2015)

Very good brand, very good unit,goes well with a stepper, but it may have some backlash which is always a problem for CNC. You may be able to adjust most of the lash out.

Cheers
Roger


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## FOMOGO (May 22, 2015)

Taiwan produces some pretty nice equipment. Remember when stuff from Japan was considered junk? Nice score on the RT. Mike


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## chips&more (May 22, 2015)

FOMOGO said:


> Taiwan produces some pretty nice equipment. Remember when stuff from Japan was considered junk? Nice score on the RT. Mike


Now “you want” to buy a car, camera, TV, and? from Japan. I can remember toys from Japan made out of beer cans.


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## JimDawson (May 22, 2015)

rcaffin said:


> Very good brand, very good unit,goes well with a stepper, but it may have some backlash which is always a problem for CNC. You may be able to adjust most of the lash out.
> 
> Cheers
> Roger



I'll hang a high resolution encoder on the table it's self for position feed back in a closed loop system.  I may use a 1 micron Renishaw ring type magnetic scale.  Similar to the stepper system I put on the Z-axis on my mill, it holds +/- 0.0001 consistently.

I have all of the parts in stock, I'll post the build in another thread when I am able to get to it.


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## uncle harry (May 22, 2015)

chips&more said:


> Now “you want” to buy a car, camera, TV, and? from Japan. I can remember toys from Japan made out of beer cans.



The Japanese bought scrap pre-litho "tin" sheet steel & printed on the back side  thus the strange inside images. I remember when they were new.


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## countryguy (Jun 6, 2015)

As much as jim d posts on this site for us newbs I would say we should take 30 and go find him that tail stock!    That looks sweet.    I am no where near the skill yet to own one but now know a lot of the names !  Great thread to the Sr. Members here!    
Jim's use of the renshaw readers/scales and his backlash omits is something I really want to experiment with at some point.     And now they do circles styles too.     Cool !  
Thanks JD. .


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