Vertex 8" Rotory Table Help

[grover]

Here's another pic showing how big, or should I say little, the gap is on my 8". The gap does not change whatsoever when rotating the handwheel assy to disengage/engage the worm on mine. Sorry, my aching back doesn't feel like pulling the thing out of the drawer right now to take a proper pic.

View attachment 369847

When looking for a vise would I be better off getting an 8" vs a 6"? I am looking at a Vertex brand 3 jaw front mount and the difference in price is about $50.
You said you prefer to mount your chuck on an adapter plate. Why is that?

 

[darkzero]

When looking for a vise would I be better off getting an 8" vs a 6"? I am looking at a Vertex brand 3 jaw front mount and the difference in price is about $50.
You said you prefer to mount your chuck on an adapter plate. Why is that?

Chuck size would be your personal preference & depends what you work on. 8" would give you more capacity but is heavier & more expensive. I'm using a 6.3" chuck & it has been fine for me, I've yet to run into a case where I needed something bigger. And the RT is already heavy, when I move it I take the chuck off.

I like the adapter plate cause I can mount the chuck directly on my mill table. Comes in pretty handy for me.






I also made an adapter for my mag chuck but I have not needed to use it on my RT or on the mill yet.

 

[grover]

First of all, that sure is some nice equipment you have there! What mill is that you own?

Not having ever used a rotary table before, I was thinking I would be using the chuck more in the vertical position( of the rotary table) and was thinking I really don't know what might come along so for $50 more it might be better to have the extra capacity.
I ran a CNC VMC for the last 25 years and on the last machine we had a fixture plate installed over the T slot table. 3/4" threaded holes alternating with 3/4" hardened bushings for pin placement (1200 holes?) and 1-2 8" Kurt vises as required. For drilling rings up to 30" we would bump it up against 2 pins sitting on strategically placed risers and clamp as needed. For cylinders up to 10" we clamped them in the vise with V block jaws fastened. We could have used a chuck but we had other machines to handle that but we could have sure used one at times!

I guess I have that large part mentality ingrained in my head from all those years and 1,000's of parts. I still haven't seen my mill ,PM940, so the size difference may open my eyes and make things much more clear as to the size of parts I can tackle. I think a 6" chuck might be best as I may hardly use it. Like I said I just lack knowledge about this home equipment stuff. Certainly a new journey for me and looking forward to it!

 

[Suzuki4evr]

Chuck size would be your personal preference & depends what you work on. 8" would give you more capacity but is heavier & more expensive. I'm using a 6.3" chuck & it has been fine for me, I've yet to run into a case where I needed something bigger. And the RT is already heavy, when I move it I take the chuck off.

I like the adapter plate cause I can mount the chuck directly on my mill table. Comes in pretty handy for me.

View attachment 369943
View attachment 369944
View attachment 369945


I also made an adapter for my mag chuck but I have not needed to use it on my RT or on the mill yet.
View attachment 369946

I just love those chucks

 

[Suzuki4evr]

Chuck size would be your personal preference & depends what you work on. 8" would give you more capacity but is heavier & more expensive. I'm using a 6.3" chuck & it has been fine for me, I've yet to run into a case where I needed something bigger. And the RT is already heavy, when I move it I take the chuck off.

I like the adapter plate cause I can mount the chuck directly on my mill table. Comes in pretty handy for me.

View attachment 369943
View attachment 369944
View attachment 369945


I also made an adapter for my mag chuck but I have not needed to use it on my RT or on the mill yet.
View attachment 369946

Dark,how does those yellow strips in the t-slots work,are they telescopic somehow or do you have different lengths?

 

[darkzero]

First of all, that sure is some nice equipment you have there! What mill is that you own?

Not having ever used a rotary table before, I was thinking I would be using the chuck more in the vertical position( of the rotary table) and was thinking I really don't know what might come along so for $50 more it might be better to have the extra capacity.
I ran a CNC VMC for the last 25 years and on the last machine we had a fixture plate installed over the T slot table. 3/4" threaded holes alternating with 3/4" hardened bushings for pin placement (1200 holes?) and 1-2 8" Kurt vises as required. For drilling rings up to 30" we would bump it up against 2 pins sitting on strategically placed risers and clamp as needed. For cylinders up to 10" we clamped them in the vise with V block jaws fastened. We could have used a chuck but we had other machines to handle that but we could have sure used one at times!

I guess I have that large part mentality ingrained in my head from all those years and 1,000's of parts. I still haven't seen my mill ,PM940, so the size difference may open my eyes and make things much more clear as to the size of parts I can tackle. I think a 6" chuck might be best as I may hardly use it. Like I said I just lack knowledge about this home equipment stuff. Certainly a new journey for me and looking forward to it!

Thanks. It's just a PM45M w/ power downfeed, the predecessor to the PM932. Just a China mill/drill but it has been good to me. I got it back when QMT did not offer all the Taiwan models yet & is what I could afford at the time. I plan to replace it someday but probably not anytime soon.

I have not needed to use my RT in the vertical position yet. I use a super spacer mostly for that which I bought before the RT. I thought about getting a super indexer (super spacer & RT in one unit) but they're heavy & I thought it would be too large for my mill mostly. I'm glad I went with a seperate super spacer & RT instead, I don't enjoy lifting my super spacer anymore & I use it much more than my RT.

 

[darkzero]

Dark,how does those yellow strips in the t-slots work,are they telescopic somehow or do you have different lengths?

The t-slot covers come 6 in a set. I cut them to certain lengths to accommodate my vise & other accessories. They're made by Vertex also. I got them from Supra Machine/Acer.

I got really sick of cleaning t-slots. The holes are to allow coolant to drain but I have not used my flood coolant system yet. I love these things. I even bought a spare set from Grizzly (less expensive & Supra/Acer's prices have gone way up) & they look exactly the same, I suspect theirs are made by Vertex too, they just come in their own Grizzly packaging.






Here you can see where I relieved the middle ones to clear my vise t-nuts.



I made them in sections so I can remove certain sections for things like my table mounted stop.

 

[Suzuki4evr]

I think they are super cool. Can you remember what they cost? I am going to check if there is something like that available around here.

 

[darkzero]

I think they are super cool. Can you remember what they cost? I am going to check if there is something like that available around here.

I forget what I paid, I think I paid $30 shipped but it's been so long I don't remember. Mine are the 14mm width. Prices vary for the different sizes.

The price right now for the size I have from the same vendor I purchased from is $31 + $19.50 shipping to me (I could of sworn I seen em for over $40 from them though for the same size).

Current price from Grizzly is $35.95 not including shipping. My spare set that I bought from Grizzly I paid $28.95 in Sep 2019.

I've have since seen other t-slot covers on ebay but beware of those who are selling universal style covers. Those don't sit below the table's surface like in the picture below. I suppose they would still work fine but these Vertex ones sit below the tables surface so you can still mount stuff on top of them if that matters to you.

I just searched T-slot cover on ebay & saw these pictured below, hopefully there's something that will pop up in your area or at least ship to you.