indexing head vs rotary table price

2023-05-21 21:22:12

Dividing heads allow you to divide a circle into equal fractions conveniently. Anything that involves regular action around a circle is a candidate for a dividing head.

A rotary table has no stops so it is not convenient to do large numbers of things at equal intervals because you would have to painstakingly determine the interval. Also, the rotary table does not divide the circle. For example, if you were making 13 equally spaced operations using a rotary table you would have to calculate some wierd angle for each operation and dial it in--a tedious process. For example, here are the 13 angles for a circle division:

Do you want to manually set each of these values? Have fun doing that. Now, imagine doing it for 53 divisions. You will be there all night. Not only that, the error will be a lot more than a dividing head.

indexing head vs rotary table price

Rotary tables are mounted horizontally, and most can also be mounted vertically. In both cases only at 90° to the mill table. A Dividing Head is always vertical, but can be tilted through 90°.

Dividing heads are always fitted with "indexing plates" (holed wheels and clock hands), allowing a wide range of angles to be turned. The indexing mechanism can do intermediate angles. Rotary tables can be fitted with indexing plates as an accessory, but usually the number of angles supported is limited compared to a dividing head. (A generalisation. And, because rotary tables do all common angles, the limitation may not matter.)

Rotary tables are more convenient for general work because most jobs are mounted at 90° or 180° relative to the milling table. Possibly more robust than a dividing head for rough work. When close accuracy isn"t needed, jobs can be spun rapidly by the rotary table without cranking the handle - a time saver. When accuracy is needed the handle and worm are engaged. Usually there"s a vernier scale sufficiently accurate for most work. The handle is also relatively fast because most simple angles can be produced with it. For example, easy to crank from 0, 60, 120, 180, 240, 300, 0 to cut a hexagon head. Unfortunately not all angles are "simple"!

Indexing plates are useful for awkward angles. Cutting a 19 toothed gear requires 19 steps of 18.9474°, which is the hard to remember sequence 37.89, 56.84, 75.78, 94.74, 113.68, 132.63° etc. The Index plate and clock hand mechanism remove the need for the operator to track the sequence but they are still a pain to use in my opinion!

Indexing plates are so awkward that driving a Rotary Table with a stepper motor and microcontroller is popular. You simply tell the controller how many divisions are needed, press "Go", and the computer does the rest. Apart from reducing brain strain and automating a tedious task, the computer eliminates most mistakes. Computers don"t get sums wrong, have excellent memories, and are hard to distract! Also, a computer and stepper motor will do a good job of angles too complicated for the Indexing plates.

Generalising again, I suggest most people, most of the time, only need a rotary table. I see Dividing Heads as specialist tools and have never felt the need for one. For the same reason I drive an ordinary small car rather than a Land Rover. The closest I get to off-road driving is a supermarket car park! You might live on a farm...

Unless there"s a specific reason for needing a Dividing Head, I wouldn"t spend money on one. My rotary table is used a lot, in contrast a Dividing Head is only "nice to have".

indexing head vs rotary table price

I have used it in the vertical position to cut a 107 tooth gear which isn"t covered by any of the dividing head wheels I"ve got. I set up an excel spreadsheet with the angle required for each tooth which isn"t as easy as it sounds as the rotary table is calibrated in degrees/minutes/seconds rather than decimal degrees so it took a bit of figuring out how to do it.

indexing head vs rotary table price

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indexing head vs rotary table price

I think as rotary table with index plates and a tailstock might be a bit more versatile than a dividing head. You can use its flat table to clamp projects down on,like a face plate. You can add a chuck. You can still cut gear teeth with the dividing attachment. A universal index head can tilt,but a rotary table can too,if you mount it on a tilting table. Less rigid on a tilting table,but I like using the flat table better than other short comings it might have.

indexing head vs rotary table price

The indexing plate is a machine tool accessory that holds the workpiece on the chuck or between two pinnacles and rotates, indexing and positioning it. Plate connected with rotary indexing table is in Diameter: 4"/100mm and Thickness: 0.28"/7mm, good for rotary tables in Model HV-3, HV-4, HV-5, HV-6, TS160. Perfect to use with dividing head for milling table.

An indexing head is intended for making EVEN rotary divisions of any desired number, is generally smaller and usually has the dividing plates as a basic part of the head. It also generally uses a chuck or collet to hold parts although faceplates can be fitted to them. Thus, an indexing head is ideal for making things with evenly spaced divisions, like gear teeth, hole circles, N sided bodies, etc. It is not very good if different spacings are needed, but they can be done. Also, it is generally good for smaller parts but larger ones can be accommodated.

A rotary table has a faceplate built in and is generally larger than an indexer. But both come in all sizes so this is far from absolute. And you can mount chucks or collet closers on them, it is just a bit harder to do. They may or may not come with dividing plates for ease in making any arbitrary number of even divisions, but they usually have accurate markings in degrees, minutes, and seconds. Due to these absolute scales, it is easier to make odd angles between features. They will mount larger work on their faceplates and it is easier to make circular arc cuts when milling on a RT than it would be on an indexer. Many of them do come with dividing plates and virtually all of them can have them added if that is desired. Another thing that is normally made on a RT is a spiral: this requires external gearing or CNC control.

Each of them can do all of the above. It is just EASIER to do some of these things on an indexer and others on a RT. I have a 10" RT as my first purchase and have not regretted that choice. I got a bargain so I took advantage of that. However, an indexer would have also been a good first choice if a similar bargain would have been possible there. In the end, I will probably get both. I also plan to make some dividing plates for my RT when I have time as they do make the job of doing even divisions a lot easier. For now, I just use a table of angular settings and hope I do not make any mistakes.

indexing head vs rotary table price

These days it"s pretty trivial to create a spreadsheet to figure out the required degrees/minutes/seconds for some arbitrary number of divisions n, so it"s not all that big a deal to use a rotary table for dividing. A dividing head is, as others say, probably a bit more convenient both in ease of dividing oddball numbers of divisions and in less mass to get in the way of what you"re machining...but a rotary table will be more flexible. If you want to substitute for a dividing head, be sure to get a horizontal/vertical rotary table, as you"ll want "vertical" mode for dividing (and making gears).

If the rotary table has a Morse #3 center hole (or whatever), in vertical mode you could probably use Morse taper collets for workholding, which might be pretty handy. The only thing is, as hinted above, in vertical mode there may be a lot of rotary table in the way of what you"re trying to machine, if you need to get in close. It"s do-able, but you may to need to be a bit creative in workholding to arrange necessary clearance to get the tool where you need it.

indexing head vs rotary table price

A rotary table is similar to an indexer, but it is designed to hold objects to its surface with t-slot clamps. They are fairly inexpensive (check your MSC catalog), but the suckers can get heavy. An indexer generally uses a collet system to hold the material. It is mostly for drilling hole patterns in round materials, and they can be quite expensive. I have both, and I use my rotary table about 20 times more than my indexer. RE: Difference between rotary table and indexer

Something else to think about if you have a specific use in mind for either. You might be able to pick up a dividing attachment that installs on a rotary table allowing the user to select the number of stops in a revolution of the table. I used to work for a company that made it"s own dividing attachments for their line of rotary tables and they were quite reliable. It depends on your application. RE: Difference between rotary table and indexer

A table top, not necessarily circular in shape, is mounted on a rotating device. The table has fixtures mounted to it so that, as the table rotates, a fixture is presented to a machine of some sort. At the machine, the parts are operated on. Then they index to the next station.

The rotator can be (typically) a cam-operated gizmo with motor to rotate the table a certain number of degrees on each cycle. Sometimes I have seen the rotator device something like a big stepper motor, to achieve a much more flexible positioning.

Indexing tables are a type of rotary table. An indexing table has ability to index to differnt degrees of rotation via mechanical stops (or electro mechanical).

In the CNC world, it"s a matter of terminology were there are rotary tables and rotary indexers controlled by the machine. In a 4-axis CNC machine the 4th axis is the rotary table or indexer. Generally the main difference is that the indexer is programmed to lock into position before machining. Rotary tables are programmed to move simultaneously while the machine cuts. Most indexers can be used like a rotary table and visa versa. Also, small units like those who use 5C collets are sometimes referred to as indexers while larger units are called tables.

In the manual machine world, the operator controls the rotary table and indexer. There are many types of indexing devices like those already mentioned, such as dividing heads that use plates with holes for precise location. Rotary tables allow machining while tuning the table. Some rotary tables have a cross slide table mounted on top for positioning of the work piece.

Nice input, That is exactly what I was getting at. I have used small rotary tables with 5C collets and with chucks. The mount has little to do with it.

When you need to rotate a part when cutting, use a rotary table. Most of these either manual or CNC will have a worm gear drive. An indexing table or head is designed to move an accurate amount and be locked. In the manual world a spindle is positioning by hand or worm gear and a plate and pin are used to stop the rotation in a specific place. In the CNC world several different methods can be used to rotate the spindle and either a shot pin or a toothed coupling is used to lock the rotation. Most indexing devices do not allow for machining when rotating and will handle greater off axis torque from milling or drilling. RE: Difference between rotary table and indexer

A superspacer typically has a three-jaw chuck for holding the work and a spur gear with 48 teeth providing 7.5 degree increments and a spring loaded shot-pin tooth to engage the gear and lock it into rotary position. Also slotted plates can be attached to allow the shot-pin to only engage at specific rotation angles such as every 45 degrees or every 90 degrees.

indexing head vs rotary table price

It’s true that less than 10% of machined parts require simultaneous 5-axis movement. Which means that more than 90% of the parts machined in a typical job shop would not benefit from expensive, complicated, full 5-axis contouring; but that doesn’t mean your shop wouldn’t benefit from simple, affordable, 5-axis indexing capability. Work platter: Available in 6.75" diameter, T-sloted platters with drilled and tapped holes to accept Raptor or any brand work-holding, vises, fixtures, chucks, etc. Also available in dual-spindle system for increased efficiencies by cutting the number of tool changes in half.

1. QuindexPneumatic 5th Axis Bolt-on kit:Easily bolts-up to your existing true 4th or semi-4th axis rotary table. Shop air drives the spindle 90 degrees up against hard stops as well as provides 300 lbs. of brake force to allow for heavy cuts. A simple M-code or relay closure triggers indexing. This is the most cost-effective option to start 5-sided machining and is designed to mount to most other brands of rotary tables. (As well as ours of course!)

•Index Designs true 4th axis rotary table with Quindex 5th axis head, outboard support all mounted on a subplate. Call or email for quote on your specific machine. Please provide year, machine and control

•Dual Quindex heads on any of the above configurations. Increase your output and cut your tool changes in half by machining two parts in one set-up. Add $4995.

indexing head vs rotary table price

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