I just bought this huge rotary table ...but it needs fixin!

[xalky]

I've decided I'm gonna keep it.

Heres my solution to dealing with the weight and making it double as a rotary welding table. The 1000lb hydralic lift table cost me $187 with a 25% coupon at HF. I'm gonna bolt a nice piece of steel plate to the rotary table cut in a circle with my plasma cutter. and countersink some flush allen head screws to the plate with some t-nuts. I'm gonna bolt the rotary table down to the lift table. I'll be able to raise and lower it for comfortable welding positions. It fits almost perfectly on top of the lift table. I'll also be able to use it as a rotary table on my mill and transfer it on and off easily when i need it. I'll should be into the whole thing for under $250. I'm pretty psyched. :lmao:





Marcel

 

[xalky]

Well, I can't seem to get this thing apart. I pulled the retaining plate off the bottom which seems to be the only thing holding the turntable on. I've tried lifting the turntable off with my engine hoist and prying it off with a couple of large screwdrivers and a combination of both. Theres a taper that goes thru the center that looks like it can be seperated from the turntable. Maybe this is a 2 piece setup, where the turntable can be seperated from the ring gear?? Does anybody know where I can find a manual for this? It's a walter RTL 500 K5.

I'm afraid to damage it.

If I can't get this thing apart, I'm just gonna drain and flush the gearbox and clean the outside and call it a day.


UPDATE: I was able to pull the worm shaft out and take a good peak inside with a flash light. All the bearings and the o-rings on the worm shaft appear to be in excellent shape. I could also see the ring gear clearly and it's in good shape too. I was able to adjust the worm gear engagement collar stops and now the collar doesn't stick like it used too, which was the main problem with the table, it was just a major effort to turn the engagement collar. It was a simple matter of adjusting the setscrew to the collar stop. I'm pretty sure that this was an indexing table with a 5 second accuracy ( thats what it says on the plate) but I dont have any of the indexing plates for it, so I'm just not gonna worry about it and leave it be. I'm gonna change the gearbox oil, clean the outside and run it. DONE!!!

Marcel

 

[kd4gij]

I aaam not familleure with that brand but on my Troyke the brake needs to be removed to get the table out.

 

[xalky]

I aaam not familleure with that brand but on my Troyke the brake needs to be removed to get the table out.

Thanks for pointing that out. My behemoth has 2 brakes and now that you say it, i just checked, and they are removable from the bottom. It's not like i can just flip this mother over to have a look, it weighs 400lbs! I got it open enough that I'm satisfied that the innards are just fine.( see post above) No need to dismantle the whole thing, it was actually nice and clean inside and the oil looked pretty fresh if not new. I think the guy that had it before me tried to get it working and put new oil in it, but the oil was too thin IMO. I just bought some gear oil to put in it. That's what I'm doing right now.

 

[hman]

I've decided I'm gonna keep it.

Heres my solution to dealing with the weight and making it double as a rotary welding table. The 1000lb hydralic lift table cost me $187 with a 25% coupon at HF. I'm gonna bolt a nice piece of steel plate to the rotary table cut in a circle with my plasma cutter. and countersink some flush allen head screws to the plate with some t-nuts. I'm gonna bolt the rotary table down to the lift table. I'll be able to raise and lower it for comfortable welding positions. It fits almost perfectly on top of the lift table.

Hmmmm:thinking: ... maybe add some kind of variable speed motor drive if you want to use it as a rotary welding table?

I recall seeing a motor driven rotary many years ago. It was used by a machinist in the Chem Department machine shop at U of Texas to TIG weld SS high vacuum flanges to pipe sections. Looked very slick!

 

[Rbeckett]

Marcel,
Looks like you found a honey hole too. Congrats on the great score. If there was any way to keep and use it I wouldn't even consider selling it. Hope you have lots of fun with this acquisition too!!!!

Bob

 

[xalky]

Hmmmm:thinking: ... maybe add some kind of variable speed motor drive if you want to use it as a rotary welding table?

I recall seeing a motor driven rotary many years ago. It was used by a machinist in the Chem Department machine shop at U of Texas to TIG weld SS high vacuum flanges to pipe sections. Looked very slick!

Thats the idea. I'm not ready to spend $$ on this but I will keep my eyes open for a DC motor from a tread mill or something to make it happen. It will be real easy to implement.

Marcel,
Looks like you found a honey hole too. Congrats on the great score. If there was any way to keep and use it I wouldn't even consider selling it. Hope you have lots of fun with this acquisition too!!!!

Bob

Yeah, I'm gonna keep it. Now I have 2 rotary tables. A 6" horizontal vertical with tailstock and indexing, and this monster 19.5" rotary. I think I'm all set in the rotary table dept..

I just filled her back up with oil last night and I'm gonna clean it up and stone the table to get any nicks out of it even though the table is in really good shape.

Marcel

 

[f350ca]

Thats quite a find Marcel
If you want to add a power feed to it you'll probably need to find a gear head motor to get slow enough rotation. I've cobbled up one a few times to run my tiny one (by your standards).
I'd have to measure the speed of this motor but I'd guess 1 or 200 rpm max. Its a dc motor so I can adjust the speed as you mentioned.


I'f it can be cranked by hand you don't need a very big motor,

I had to cut the OD on this 24 inch sheave to clear the face of the belt and didn't want to pull the gap in the lathe.



Greg

 

[xalky]

Yeah, it turns pretty easy now that I've cleaned it up, oiled it and adjusted it. It's harder to turn than a 12" would be but it's very smooth. I get 3 degrees with one rotation of the handle. This table is really nice it has minute graduations on the handle and it has a vernier for seconds. The tag says that it's accurate to 5 seconds. Pretty impressive.

A DC gear motor would seem to be the solution. Any ideas as to where i might look to pull one out of a piece of junk?

 

[f350ca]

The one I was using on the rotary table came out of blue print machines we scrapped at work, also use one through a gearbox for welding. That one is 110 volt dc easy to control with a variac and diode. A friend gave me 2 - 12volt ones from a golf bag caddy, look the same but lower voltage. Even a windshield wiper motor would work.