Reconditioning A 8" Palmgren Rotary Table

  • Thread starter Thread starter 4GSR
  • Start date Start date
Very nice job on the RT. It gives a certain satisfaction to bring things back from the dead. Mike
 
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4gsr said:
Yeah, the tight area is probably harden grease.
To get the table off, you must remove the two 1/4" socket head cap screws located down in the tee slots of the table top. Once removed, gently pry the table off. Palmgren did not press fit anything, so it shouldn't take much to get it removed. Oh, I forgot, remove the two knurled screws and the clamp shoes that locks the table down before removing the table. Once that is done, everything else comes apart easily. All of the pins that hole the handwheels onto the shafts are straight drive pins, not tapered.

When you go back together, use a waylube on the worm gear where it rides on the internal stud. On the worm and worn gear, use a grease with moly-disulfate in it. Before putting it back together, check the assembled height for correct clearance of the table to the housing. It should have only about .002-.005" clearance. If more than that, face off a little on the worm gear and try again. I used my surface grinder to do this as well as on the table top, too.
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Thank you for the info. I thought it might be grease but without opening it I couldn't be sure.
Palmgren wasn't too helpful when I wrote to Customer service about getting a takedown / service manual.

Once I get it working properly I'll post some pictures. thanks again
Jim
 
4gsr said:
Yeah, the tight area is probably harden grease.
When you go back together, use a waylube on the worm gear where it rides on the internal stud. On the worm and worn gear, use a grease with moly-disulfate in it. Before putting it back together, check the assembled height for correct clearance of the table to the housing. It should have only about .002-.005" clearance. If more than that, face off a little on the worm gear and try again. I used my surface grinder to do this as well as on the table top, too.
Click to expand...

Got it apart. It looks like the grease is okay, cleaned it off anyway. I adjusted the mesh of the worm by backing off the worm gear shaft casting and it works better now. I forgot about oiling the center gear in my hurry to button it up so I'll do that later tonight.

Thanks for the info, it really helped. I did find I could put the locks back in loosely before I put the table back on. Might not be correct procedure but it worked.
 
Nice Rebuild.

I also have a Palmgren 8". I've never been able to understand the advantage, in the Palmgren design, of having the x-y cross slides below the rotary table vs just mounting a standard rotary table to the x-y mill table? I can see the advantage to having the x-y slides above the rotary table, as it would allow one to easily offset the axis of rotation, to make non circular shapes. Am I missing something?
 
DAT510 said:
Nice Rebuild.
I've never been able to understand the advantage, in the Palmgren design, of having the x-y cross slides below the rotary table vs just mounting a standard rotary table to the x-y mill table?
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I believe when this was sold the primary use was for a drill press rather than a milling machine, hence the X-Y slides since none would be available on a drill press.
 
DAT510 said:
Nice Rebuild.

I also have a Palmgren 8". I've never been able to understand the advantage, in the Palmgren design, of having the x-y cross slides below the rotary table vs just mounting a standard rotary table to the x-y mill table? I can see the advantage to having the x-y slides above the rotary table, as it would allow one to easily offset the axis of rotation, to make non circular shapes. Am I missing something?
Click to expand...

Palmgren made a series of rotary tables with the X-Y slides for the packaging industry. Rather than being used on a machine tool they were mounted on a portable stand with a labeling machine attached to the table. The table could be turned or moved in the X or Y direction to accurately align labels to fast moving packages. Where I worked we used them in several applications. Some packages had plastic covers with a raised edge slightly larger than the label itself to keep the label from being damaged. The labeling machine on the rotary table could place the labels within the raised boarders within a few thousandths of an inch at a rate of several hundred packages per minute. Some had a hard life. Over the years they would go from below freezing temperatures in production rooms to 140+* degree caustic wash downs on a daily basis.

I currently have 2 that were retired from production in my shop. Since they were used for stationary positioning rather than being moved for each operation they are in remarkably good condition.
 
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That's interested. Thanks for sharing projectnut.

Ken
 
projectnut said:
Palmgren made a series of rotary tables with the X-Y slides for the packaging industry. Rather than being used on a machine tool they were mounted on a portable stand with a labeling machine attached to the table. The table could be turned or moved in the X or Y direction to accurately align labels to fast moving packages packages. Where I worked we used them in several applications. Some packages had plastic covers with a raised edge slightly larger than the label itself to keep the label from being damaged. The labeling machine on the rotary table could place the labels within the raised boarders within a few thousandths of an inch at a rate of several hundred packages per minute. Some had a hard life. Over the years they would go from below freezing temperatures in production rooms to 140+* degree caustic wash downs on a daily basis.

I currently have 2 that were retired from production in my shop. Since they were used for stationary positioning rather than being moved for each operation they are in remarkably good condition.
Click to expand...

Very interesting and and a rather surprising application. I scored one at a local yard scale several years ago for about $ 35 that is in near virgin shape.
Thanks for sharing another unusual use for them.
 
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