HV-6 Rotary table fixture plate build

[John281]

Here's an idea: cut the arbor flush with the surface of the plate and then bore a hole in the arbor. You can then make some pins to fit in the hole to help center your workpiece (assuming it has a hole in the middle). I just ordered some material to make one myself.

 

[Parlo]

You could consider some tenon slots on the plate and a tenon slot in a vice. Here is a link to a quick way to set up a job from the centre of the table.

Also a demonstration video

 

[WobblyHand]

Still a bit away from even thinking about the arbor. Been drilling holes. What seems like lots of them! Here is the last hole just about to be drilled. I am so glad I indexed the plate to zero. Saved me a whole lot of trouble. All holes where they belong, save for the single counterbore.

Tapping... Ugh. Using a spiral flute M6 tap, but it seems to clog (and jam) about 4mm from the bottom. Plate is about 21mm thick. The flutes jam up with chips. These are through holes. So out comes the tap, clear it of chips and back in it goes. Can see it's going to be a whole day of hand tapping. Forward progress feels good.

 

[WobblyHand]

Oof, 44 holes to tap. But they are done. Or nearly done, since maybe 8 of them I couldn't run out the bottom since the spacer was interfering. Chamfered the holes on both sides. The 30mm M8 screws I was going to use to hold down the plate to the table are a tiny bit long. That's because the tee-nuts aren't fully tapped. So I'll grind off 2-3 threads off each screw.

Wish I hadn't blown that counterbore, the rest of it came out pretty nice. But it should be functional. Next I need to trim off the arbor and bore a hole in it. Was a good day in the shop.

 

[jwmelvin]

I think it looks great. It’ll be fun to see how you put it to use

 

[Just for fun]

I agree looks great! Looking forward to seeing it in use.

Tim

 

[DavidR8]

Great job!

 

[jwmay]

Looks great from here.
You mentioned running your slitting saw at 150 rpm and having a little trouble. Have you considered running it around 5-600? I had ALOT of trouble trying to run slitting saws at low rpm. I run at 600 rpm now. It's been much better. It probably matters how many teeth your blade has. Anyways...just a thought.

 

[WobblyHand]

Looks great from here.
You mentioned running your slitting saw at 150 rpm and having a little trouble. Have you considered running it around 5-600? I had ALOT of trouble trying to run slitting saws at low rpm. I run at 600 rpm now. It's been much better. It probably matters how many teeth your blade has. Anyways...just a thought.

At 600 RPM and 4" diameter, the SFM would be far greater than recommended for steel. (My mandrel was made of 1045 steel.) That would be roughly 600 SFM. Recommended SFM for steel is around 100 surface feet/minute. Rather run a slower RPM than burn up or dull my HSS saw. At 150 RPM, I am running a bit fast, but this mill has even less torque at 100 RPM than at 150 RPM. (Torque is linear in this region, approaching 0 at 0 RPM.) Used this 4" saw simply because I needed to cut a 1" deep slot. Ordinarily, I'd use smaller 2" saws to use higher RPMs.

Think I'll make a larger spindle pulley for this mill to improve the low end torque. Already designed it in FreeCAD. Learning FreeCAD was a bear, but now I can draw up stuff in a pretty short time. Definitely worth the struggle learning it. Especially when you can parameterize the drawing, allowing you to scale or move things around with little to no penalty.

Anyways, back to the shop... Need to finish this project. Lots more of them in the queue. (Why on earth is queue spelled that way?)

 

[John281]

Why on earth is queue spelled that way?

Blame the French