Diy Motorizing A Rotary Table, Anyone ?

[Subwayrocket]

I have a vertex 10" Rotary table with mounted chuck, I use it often. There are quite a few occasions I wish it was motorized. Has anyone done a DIY motor on their rotary table and not spent a fortune ? I've seen pretty expensive motors so i'm looking for DIY options. I think I may have even seen a youtube vid of a guy using a slow speed hand drill. I just need to turn it , I dont need to stop or start precisely , just would like to turn it by motor . I have a few ideas but would like to see if anyone else has done it before I try and reinvent the wheel.
Thanks guys, I appreciate it !

 

[rgray]

I'm gonna point you to this. http://www.liming.org/millindex/
It's a neet set up and could easily be used on a rotary table I think. Inexpensive also.
He is a member here so maybe he has some thoughts also.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

i have not tried it but i know the idea will work and rather cheaply too, i may add.
you'll need a power supply, a small DC motor, pwm controller and either a belt/pulley arrangement or direct drive is also possible

 

[GLCarlson]

If you want a motorized indexer, yeah, doable, just hang a stepper or PWM controlled dc motor on it possibly along with some kind of decent brake. If you want a CNC 4th axis, it's a nonstarter (look up "harmonic drive").

 

[Subwayrocket]

Thanks guys ! and no cnc here, all manual, I don't need to index or stop at set points or anything, just need it to turn the table. Yes I have been thinking about just hanging a motor off it. It doesn't even have to be pretty, just functional.
I'm looking to see if anyone already has done it and pics to get ideas how.
During deer season, we used to clamp a milwaukee right angle drill on the table and to our hand crank meat grinder....made venison burger all day ... it was a wonky looking thing but worked very well ...lol
Now I need to get my RT rigged up with something .

 

[revwarguy]

Thanks guys ! I don't need to index or stop at set points or anything, just need it to turn the table.

Well then, no need to make it hard.

You can get a fairly cheap gear motor that is used to move car seats or windows, etc. from many sources, here's a cheap one. (That one is a bit fast, but with speed control you should be ok - you didn't say how fast you wanted it to turn.) Then, you need a 10 amp or so power supply, also pretty cheap from ebay, like this one and a motor driver that can handle the amps like this one - that one includes the forward reverse switch as well as the speed control knob. I count that to be about $13.65+$18.95 (for the 10 amp one, you might get by with less)+$18.18= $50.78. You just need to mount the motor and attach the motor shaft to the table handle and add some wire from the power supply to the controller and from the controller to the motor, and voila!

Or, as you mentioned, you could mangle a $20 Harbor Freight battery powered drill and use that, but personally that would just be a bit too clunky for my shop, and I don't like batteries all that much.

 

[rgray]

I don't need to index or stop at set points or anything

So far you don't. But may like that option in the future.