Rotary Table Angle Plate

[Fabrickator]

Rotary Table Angle Plate (or any small part machined on an angle)

I've been so busy at work lately it seems that I haven’t had time to get back into a real, fun project so I decided to tinker with this fixture that I've been thinking about for years now. As it turns out, this was a pretty good project (part-time) but well worth the effort and minimal cost.

I recently completed a scale model of a Super Bowl Trophy project that required my shimming my RT on a 5* angle to cut the compound triangle base. I didn't want to sideline the Trophy project to build an angle plate at that time, but now that I have the time, it is the time, so next time - I’ll be ready.

I didn’t have any plans so I engineered it from some pics I found on the net to suit my RT and Mill. I have the LMS High Torque Mini Mill and also their RT kit with a 3-jaw chuck, Indexing and Tailstock. It’s a pretty fair sized RT (5”) for the mill size, it’s heavy weight and works really well. I’ve made a bunch of stuff and I use the indexing most every time I’ve used it.


I made mine out of ½” 6061 aluminum plate because I wanted it really stout to minimize any possible vibration. I cut the plate and trued up the edges. I used the RT to cut the radius on the supporting end pieces. I milled the radius slots “long” at both ends so I could have some room to fine tune it. I can tram the RT perfectly to the mill head at 0* with set screws. Accurate setting of angles will be done with my Starrett Combo Square/Protractor attachment. I used the mill to accurately drill all of the holes (DRO’s) and countersunk the bolts for clearance using 5/16” X 18 for the table mount and 3/8” X 16 for the base mount.



Next, I started making a RT tooling plate, again using ½” 6061. I want it as big as it can be “usable” on my little mill (7"), anticipating the possibility of owning a larger mill one day. It needs to be thick enough to drill and tap a large series of holes in it to aid in setups. Some tooling plates also have T-Slots like the RT. I’m still thinking about that one.

 

[kvt]

Thanks for sharing this, This is sim to what I was thinking about, But a lot more solid,
It looks nice,

 

[brino]

Wow! On the first few pictures it was hard to know the scale (I went to the pics before the text....)

.....then to see it the width of your mill table....that is substantial!

Nicely done.

-brino

 

[randyc]

That looks very nice, great job !

 

[Fabrickator]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I started on the tooling plate by cutting the 1/2" X 7" disk on my band saw. Then I made a mandrel to mount it on so I could clean-up the rough OD. After that I faced both sides (not shown here). Now I 'm ready to start laying out and drilling my holes.

Rick
Grizzly G0602

 

[Fabrickator]

Well, here is the finished product. After truing up the disk and looking to drill the mounting holes, it was clear that the large size of the disk dragged on the index wheel. So I made a riser plate out of 1/4" plate to add as a spacer for clearance. I then drilled the mounting bolt holes and decided on a tooling bolt hole pattern. It took a few hours to drill and tap all of the holes to 1/4" X 20.

 

[Fabrickator]

Now that I have a tooling plate, I decided to make some "stops" to better hold and locate work pieces. Generally speaking the std. clamps are good enough to hold a piece in place while performing an operation, but it never hurts to add some stops for added protection against shifting on critical operations. I decided that I wanted adjustable stops and so I made a six-pack gang style, cut them free and finished the ends.

Here I'm setting up to bore a bearing boss and add a retainer ring. I plan on removing the bulk of the metal using an end mill and my rotary table and then finish the bore and ring groove with my Criterion boring tool. I could have set it up in a 4-jaw but this chunk of 3/4" 6061 has some weight and would run out of balance, even at he slowest speed on my Grizzly G0602 (150rpm) unless I counter-weighted it.