# Vertex 8" Rotory Table Help



## grover (Jun 21, 2021)

I just purchased a Vertex 8" rotary table from Amazon. Seemed to be a good price and free shipping. About 1 hour later I was looking at the listing to see if maybe I had screwed up buying it as I know nothing about rotary tables and have not yet seen the mill it will sit upon! PM940 on back order. The price had jumped $25 and now the shipping was $68! Even if I did make a mistake at least I got a good deal. Ha.
I am watching a lot of you tube videos on selecting the right one and proper setup ect. There is a guy named Joe Pieczynski who has a good tutorial,explains things well. I will post a link to the video,* watch from the 10 minute mark. He focuses on the dialing in of the handle and scale. The table I received has markings that are finer graduations on the rotating scale than on the stationary scale (0-60 minutes fine tune). The Phase II that he is using has the same width graduations on each scale. It makes sense when he explains using his dial but mine does not seem to jive.* Also there is a gap of about .1" between the scales. The outer handle will not slide on far enough it seems. The pocket on the inside of the outer handle is 1.037" and the internal components on the shaft project 1.3". Any body have any comments on this? I also purchased the Vertex dividing plate set which hasn't shipped yet. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks





These pictures show mine with the gap and the pictures off of Amazon. Mine is a 3 slot....it seems they all are coming through like that. Even the ones showing 4 slots are getting comments that people are receiving 3 slot tables. I was under the assumption that Vertex was a good name. It has all the Vertex paperwork. States on table it is made in Taiwan with 1 year warranty.


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## mksj (Jun 21, 2021)

I would read the instructions. The gap in the dial maybe that the drive is not engaged, there is the black T knob which you need to loosens and you turn the back part of the dial to either engage the handle drive or disengage it. It moves in and out as the arrows on mine show. There may be some other adjustment on yours.  The gradations are different on the dial via reading the minutes, So mine is showing 10 seconds before 0. The number of slots varies with the size of the rotary table, typically the smaller ones have 3 slots.  Vertex are good rotary tables, it looks authentic.


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## Dabbler (Jun 21, 2021)

Stefan Gotteswinter on youtube has a great series where he made his Vertex table into an ultra-precise one.  Well worth the watch.


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## darkzero (Jun 21, 2021)

Generally Vertex is a good quality brand. I used to have a 6" Rutland made by Vertex & currently an 8" by Vertex, never had any issues with either of them.

My 8" Vertex RT has 4 slots. On Vertex's website they list the 4", 6", & 8" as having 3 slots but I have seen the 8" come both ways from various vendors. Only the 10" & larger come with 6 slots. I do prefer the 4 slots over 3. I got mine as a gift from Matt QMT/PM, although not listed on his website I know he does sell them (not sure if that has changed).

Mine does not have a big gap between the dials like yours. Since you say you can't adjust the placement of handwheel any further, IIRC that fixed graduated ring is held on with a set screw, maybe it was not assembled correctly & can be adjusted. I'm surprised yours came that way from the Vertex factory but mistakes do happen even from reputable manufacturers.


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## darkzero (Jun 21, 2021)

Here's another pic showing how big, or should I say little, the gap is on my 8". The gap does not change whatsoever when rotating the handwheel assy to disengage/engage the worm on mine. Sorry, my aching back doesn't feel like pulling the thing out of the drawer right now to take a proper pic.


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## Dabbler (Jun 21, 2021)

both my 6" and my 8" vertex have 4 slots at 90 degrees.


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## darkzero (Jun 21, 2021)

One advantage of the 3 slots is that it makes it very easy to mount a 3-jaw chuck if you get a front mount chuck. No adapter plate needed & you can run the same size chuck as the table. No need to step down the chuck size like mine shown above. Still, I prefer to have a chuck mounted on an adapter anyway for another reason.


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## grover (Jun 22, 2021)

mksj said:


> I would read the instructions. The gap in the dial maybe that the drive is not engaged, there is the black T knob which you need to loosens and you turn the back part of the dial to either engage the handle drive or disengage it. It moves in and out as the arrows on mine show. There may be some other adjustment on yours.  The gradations are different on the dial via reading the minutes, So mine is showing 10 seconds before 0. The number of slots varies with the size of the rotary table, typically the smaller ones have 3 slots.  Vertex are good rotary tables, it looks authentic.
> 
> View attachment 369837
> 
> ...


I did read the manual. When you loosen the black T knob it allows you to rotate the shaft towards or away from the gear on the table and you can then rotate the table without the hand wheel shaft rotating.Engage /disengage by moving the worm gear away. The shaft moves side ways not in and out. Look at what happens when you rotate your shaft. The gap between your scales does not change.

Bingo! There is a setscrew on the "micro collar" (vernier ring on the hand wheel) When loosened it allows you to slide the ring forward to close the gap between the two rings. No mention that this might need to be done in the manual. This is located right at the "0" mark. Loosen setscrew-move collar forward-tighten setscrew!

Darkzero your post was not yet visible to me when I posted this. Thank you for coming up with the answer! Really glad I won't have to send this back when nothing was really wrong with it!


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## grover (Jun 22, 2021)

grover said:


> I did read the manual. When you loosen the black T knob it allows you to rotate the shaft towards or away from the gear on the table and you can then rotate the table without the hand wheel shaft rotating.Engage /disengage by moving the worm gear away. The shaft moves side ways not in and out. Look at what happens when you rotate your shaft. The gap between your scales does not change.
> 
> Bingo! There is a setscrew on the "micro collar" (vernier ring on the hand wheel) When loosened it allows you to slide the ring forward to close the gap between the two rings. No mention that this might need to be done in the manual. This is located right at the "0" mark. Loosen setscrew-move collar forward-tighten setscrew!


Notice how the gap was moved forward!


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## grover (Jun 22, 2021)

darkzero said:


> Generally Vertex is a good quality brand. I used to have a 6" Rutland made by Vertex & currently an 8" by Vertex, never had any issues with either of them.
> 
> My 8" Vertex RT has 4 slots. On Vertex's website they list the 4", 6", & 8" as having 3 slots but I have seen the 8" come both ways from various vendors. Only the 10" & larger come with 6 slots. I do prefer the 4 slots over 3. I got mine as a gift from Matt QMT/PM, although not listed on his website I know he does sell them (not sure if that has changed).
> 
> ...


Seeing as the handwheel was shipped separately  in it's own little sealed box I can see that happening. They should just send documentation and the end consumer will know how to close that gap.


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## grover (Jun 23, 2021)

darkzero said:


> Here's another pic showing how big, or should I say little, the gap is on my 8". The gap does not change whatsoever when rotating the handwheel assy to disengage/engage the worm on mine. Sorry, my aching back doesn't feel like pulling the thing out of the drawer right now to take a proper pic.
> 
> View attachment 369847


When looking for a vise would I be better off getting an 8" vs a 6"? I am looking at a Vertex brand 3 jaw front mount and the difference in price is about $50.
You said you prefer to mount your chuck on an adapter plate. Why is that?


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## darkzero (Jun 23, 2021)

grover said:


> When looking for a vise would I be better off getting an 8" vs a 6"? I am looking at a Vertex brand 3 jaw front mount and the difference in price is about $50.
> You said you prefer to mount your chuck on an adapter plate. Why is that?


Chuck size would be your personal preference & depends what you work on. 8" would give you more capacity but is heavier & more expensive. I'm using a 6.3" chuck & it has been fine for me, I've yet to run into a case where I needed something bigger. And the RT is already heavy, when I move it I take the chuck off.

I like the adapter plate cause I can mount the chuck directly on my mill table. Comes in pretty handy for me.









I also made an adapter for my mag chuck but I have not needed to use it on my RT or on the mill yet.


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## grover (Jun 23, 2021)

First of all, that sure is some nice equipment you have there! What mill is that you own?

Not having ever used a rotary table before, I was thinking I would be using the chuck more in the vertical position( of the rotary table) and was thinking I really don't know what might come along so for $50 more it might be better to have the extra capacity.
I ran a CNC VMC for the last 25 years and on the last machine we had a fixture plate installed over the T slot table. 3/4" threaded holes alternating with 3/4" hardened bushings for pin placement (1200 holes?) and 1-2 8" Kurt vises as required. For drilling rings up to 30" we would bump it up against 2 pins sitting on strategically placed risers and clamp as needed. For cylinders up to 10" we clamped them in the vise with V block jaws fastened. We could have used a chuck but we had other machines to handle that but we could have sure used one at times!

I guess I have that large part mentality ingrained in my head from all those years and 1,000's of parts. I still haven't seen my mill ,PM940, so the size difference may open my eyes and make things much more clear as to the size of parts I can tackle.  I think a 6" chuck might be best as I may hardly use it. Like I said I just lack knowledge about this home equipment stuff. Certainly a new journey for me and looking forward to it!


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## Suzuki4evr (Jun 23, 2021)

darkzero said:


> Chuck size would be your personal preference & depends what you work on. 8" would give you more capacity but is heavier & more expensive. I'm using a 6.3" chuck & it has been fine for me, I've yet to run into a case where I needed something bigger. And the RT is already heavy, when I move it I take the chuck off.
> 
> I like the adapter plate cause I can mount the chuck directly on my mill table. Comes in pretty handy for me.
> 
> ...




I just love those chucks


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## Suzuki4evr (Jun 23, 2021)

darkzero said:


> Chuck size would be your personal preference & depends what you work on. 8" would give you more capacity but is heavier & more expensive. I'm using a 6.3" chuck & it has been fine for me, I've yet to run into a case where I needed something bigger. And the RT is already heavy, when I move it I take the chuck off.
> 
> I like the adapter plate cause I can mount the chuck directly on my mill table. Comes in pretty handy for me.
> 
> ...


Dark,how does those yellow strips in the t-slots work,are they telescopic somehow or do you have different lengths?


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## darkzero (Jun 23, 2021)

grover said:


> First of all, that sure is some nice equipment you have there! What mill is that you own?
> 
> Not having ever used a rotary table before, I was thinking I would be using the chuck more in the vertical position( of the rotary table) and was thinking I really don't know what might come along so for $50 more it might be better to have the extra capacity.
> I ran a CNC VMC for the last 25 years and on the last machine we had a fixture plate installed over the T slot table. 3/4" threaded holes alternating with 3/4" hardened bushings for pin placement (1200 holes?) and 1-2 8" Kurt vises as required. For drilling rings up to 30" we would bump it up against 2 pins sitting on strategically placed risers and clamp as needed. For cylinders up to 10" we clamped them in the vise with V block jaws fastened. We could have used a chuck but we had other machines to handle that but we could have sure used one at times!
> ...


Thanks. It's just a PM45M w/ power downfeed, the predecessor to the PM932. Just a China mill/drill but it has been good to me. I got it back when QMT did not offer all the Taiwan models yet & is what I could afford at the time. I plan to replace it someday but probably not anytime soon.

I have not needed to use my RT in the vertical position yet. I use a super spacer mostly for that which I bought before the RT. I thought about getting a super indexer (super spacer & RT in one unit) but they're heavy & I thought it would be too large for my mill mostly. I'm glad I went with a seperate super spacer & RT instead, I don't enjoy lifting my super spacer anymore & I use it much more than my RT.


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## darkzero (Jun 23, 2021)

Suzuki4evr said:


> Dark,how does those yellow strips in the t-slots work,are they telescopic somehow or do you have different lengths?


The t-slot covers come 6 in a set. I cut them to certain lengths to accommodate my vise & other accessories. They're made by Vertex also. I got them from Supra Machine/Acer.

I got really sick of cleaning t-slots.   The holes are to allow coolant to drain but I have not used my flood coolant system yet. I love these things. I even bought a spare set from Grizzly (less expensive & Supra/Acer's prices have gone way up) & they look exactly the same, I suspect theirs are made by Vertex too, they just come in their own Grizzly packaging.









Here you can see where I relieved the middle ones to clear my vise t-nuts.




I made them in sections so I can remove certain sections for things like my table mounted stop.


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## Suzuki4evr (Jun 24, 2021)

I think they are super cool. Can you remember what they cost? I am going to check if there is something like that available around here.


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## darkzero (Jun 24, 2021)

Suzuki4evr said:


> I think they are super cool. Can you remember what they cost? I am going to check if there is something like that available around here.


I forget what I paid, I think I paid $30 shipped but it's been so long I don't remember. Mine are the 14mm width. Prices vary for the different sizes.

The price right now for the size I have from the same vendor I purchased from is $31 + $19.50 shipping to me (I could of sworn I seen em for over $40 from them though for the same size).

Current price from Grizzly is $35.95 not including shipping. My spare set that I bought from Grizzly I paid $28.95 in Sep 2019.

I've have since seen other t-slot covers on ebay but beware of those who are selling universal style covers. Those don't sit below the table's surface like in the picture below. I suppose they would still work fine but these Vertex ones sit below the tables surface so you can still mount stuff on top of them if that matters to you.

I just searched T-slot cover on ebay & saw these pictured below, hopefully there's something that will pop up in your area or at least ship to you.


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