how to use a rotary table and dividing plates supplier

If your table has a ratio of 90:1 then you will have to turn the dial 90 turn to make the table go around once. That means that you divide 360 degrees by 90 turns and you get 4 degrees per turn. Simple enough.

Now lets say that you want to cut something that has 4 slots in it. Divide 360 by 4 cuts. That gives you 90 degrees per cut. So haw many turns to make 90 degrees? Divide 90 by 4 degrees and you get 22 1/2 turns. (90 turns divided by 4 will give you the same results) You could do this one by sight but it gits harder when you are cutting gears or something with odd numbers and lots of teeth.

So here is what you do. This is where the plates come in! This example is easy but the theroy is the same. You only need a plate with two holes but since there is no such thing you will use any plate that the row of holes you want to use will divide by 2 since you need half turns. Set your index arms so that the pin on your arm falls inside the dividing arms. Set them so that you can find the next hole of the same count. IE: If you used a 24 hole plate then you will have 12 holes between the arms thus giving you half turns each time you index.

So count off the 22 turns then the 12 holes on the index plate. Move the arms once you establish this hole. Do this four times and you have the four slots at 90 degrees.

All you have to remember is that you need a plate that the number of holes will divided by the fraction of a turn that you have left after turning the full turns. IE: 3 1/3 turns needs a plate that the holes will divide by thee. 5 1/5 turns needs a plate that will divide by 5. 2 1/8 turns needs a plate that will devide by 8.

The number of full turns has nothing to do with the plate hole count. Only the remaining partial turn needs to be indexed. You have to count the full turns youself. Using the RT degree scale helps make sure you counted correctly if you get interputed. It happens!

This plate can be used either directly, or through a geared dividing mechanism. In direct indexing the workpiece and plate rotate in a 1-to-1 ratio, and holes are used directly. That is, a plate with 12 holes can divide the workpiece into 2, 3, 4, 6, or 12 equal segments. A dividing head incorporates an internal gear ratio (usually 40:1, 60:1, or 90:1) with the same plates. In doing so, the dividing head enables many more combinations than just direct indexing.

For example, imagine a plate with 15 equally-spaced holes and a dividing head with a 40:1 gear reduction. In direct indexing, a workpiece could be divided into 3, 5, or 15 equal segments. Using the dividing head, the same workpiece could be divided into 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 75, 100, 120, 150, 200, 300, or 600 segments. Essentially, the dividing head acts as if it’s a direct indexer with 600 holes; 15 holes in the actual plate * 40:1 gear ratio. Let’s look at how some of these combinations are possible.

It swivels so you can set it up so the face is horizontal but by the time you add a chuck it"s getting quite high and you sometimes run out of room for the tooling.

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.

Anyway, I cut the gear all right (crossing out each angle on the spreadsheet as each tooth was cut) but you really need to be concentrating using this method.

One problem I had with the BS-0 is that the tapered hole isn"t a #2 Morse taper but a Brown and Sharp taper which meant I couldn"t find any collets for it. In the end I made a 1/2" collet out of brass which I found to be really useful. I don"t know if that is the case with the modern versions.

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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".

I am starting out with my recently acquired mill, and the (ever longer) list of projects contain several that would be easier (possible!) with a small rotary table.

The Mill (an SX1LP) seems to suit a 4" table. Reading the forum about such devices I think a simple H/V one would be fine. There seem to be two main choices (in my price bracket) 36:1 (10°/turn) ratio and 90:1 (4°/turn) ratio. The former are a bit cheaper, but the handwheel is on top in the vertical position while the 90:1 seem to have the handwheel horizontal in both orientations which would seem more useable on my small mill.

Do the different ratios make one more or less useful ( both would be capable of being set to sufficient angular precision for anything I can visualise doing)?.

Which will be stronger? Does 90:1 mean more teeth (of the same size) on a bigger wormwheel, or many smaller teeth on the same size wheel. The former should mean the 90:1 will be be stronger (bigger radius hence lower forces for the same torque). The latter would seem to make the 90:1 weaker.

Do the different ratios make one more or less useful ( both would be capable of being set to sufficient angular precision for anything I can visualise doing)?.

A 36:1 table turns more quickly than 90:1, making it faster to use, but less accurate. Reduced accuracy doesn"t matter provided only simple angles will be needed. Stuff like hexagon heads.

However, new rotary table owners are soon likely to find jobs where extra accuracy is valuable! Gear cutting is the obvious example, but there are many others, such as cams, helices, drilling awkwardly spaced PCDs etc.

If gear cutting & chums are ever on the menu, a 90:1 table is better. But, oh dear, more money - gear cutting requires a set of division plates or a stepper motor with driver. Manually moving a table to cut 57 teeth ( 6.316° ) per step, soon reduces operators to a nervous wreck and mechanical help keeping track is pretty much essential. I"m not sure 4" tables can be had with division plates, and would recommend a 5" 90:1 table with plates if any advanced functions are on the cards.

Strong rotary tables cost big money. I suggest the hobby type and some expensive makes are unsuited to heavy work whatever the ratio. Brutally hacking out the inner arcs and spokes of several big traction engine wheels at top speed will trash them. Treated with mild respect for ordinary work either ratio should be fine.

I"m actually quite liking using 72:1 and tend to pick that up in preference to my 90:1 table but not sure if there are any to fit your budget with that number of turns as the ARC ones are a bit more costly than the norm.

I find the 5deg per turn works out easier for a lot of common numbers that you are likely to want to do basic dividing/indexing without having to resort to plates.

If (and I repeat, if) you go down the route of adding dividing plates to it, you will almost surely have to calculate all the plate and hole numbers for the 36:1 ratio table.

I"ve got the 90:1 - bearing in mind the low power and lack of rigidity of the SX1L (not a criticism - its great for what it is), the slower feed rate is probably desirable if you"re using it to radius corners and the like - you do have to baby it a bit for that sort of thing.

As far as I can tell, you"re on your own if you want to have a division plate set-up. I was part way through designing such a thing for mine when the need for a 63 tooth changewheel became urgent, so I went for the cheap and cheerful approach of printing a strip of paper with the appropriate divisions marked on it, and taping it round the circumference of the table. Eyeballing alignment with the index mark on the table worked fine - it may not be super precision, but my Imperial threads screw into existing fittings without a problem (and the 63-tooth method isn"t perfect anyway).

The only slight irritation with this method is that the strip is 319.9 mm long for my table, so you have to print it at 33 degrees to fit it on a sheet of A4 - it would have been nice to have printed a whole lot of them on one sheet for different tooth numbers.

I have done charts for all of mine with the standard hole plates, and some that allow different indexing plates to be used from other units, so I can mix and match between different ones.

The 36:1 model would probably have bigger, stronger teeth and more suited for machining while rotating the table while the 90:1 model will be more accurate but will have smaller, weaker teeth. No problem if locked in stationary position but not as good while rotating.

Many of the smaller RT"s have a worm wheel which can be easily damaged. As I found out the hard way. (this was an expensive Japanese made RT, not one of the cheaper ones)

I have two, both the same supplier (manufacturer) but manufacture of these machines was moved, from one country to another, and reports on here indicate that the original (older) supplier provided a superior product - an example of cost reduction versus longevity?

Buy the largest your mill will accommodate - I would have bought a bigger one, as a second purchase (but I only bought the second because I really only wanted the chuck attached and paid less for the whole lot than for a new chuck