dividing head vs rotary table brands

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 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".

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.

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.

You can get a set of plates for your rotary table that allow you to index positions, and you put them on the handle.. so its geared down 40:1 or 90:1, And the plates have all kinds of prime numbers all over em, so you can basicly do a billion diffrent divisions. Usally something like 1~100 devisions and lots of non prime numbers after that. "Devider arms" make finding the next hole in the seqence much easyer and efficent.

Buy a horzontal/vertical rotary table, And buy one of the better brands. .some of those cheap ones are pertty crappy. I got a phase II and it looks very impressive and seems well built with nice features.

You don"t need an angle table yet either. First off, usally you can just mount the part on an angle in the vise, or tilt the head, clamp it down on an angled part, whatever.

PS: No rotary table will be doing spirals unless its linked to the X or Y axis of your mill (or has its own X or Y axis). Some have a large geartrain option to facilitate this.. but how often do you really need to make spirals? And linking it up isent exactly easy. since you"ll need to mount a geartrain to your mill and likey some shafts and such.

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.

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.

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.

Home / Rotary Tables, Rapid Indexers and Dividing Heads / Soba and Other Brand Rotary Tables and accessoriesSoba and Other Brand Rotary Tables and accessories

They have a totally ground finish which provides high precision and smooth rotation – The centre of the table is fitted to an inner conical Morse tapered MT2 sleeve.

The indexing head doesn"t only look great, but allow you to do more with your milling machine: measuring specific angles and dividing a circle into equidistant arcs. It comes with 3 interchangeable indexing plates and a tailstock to ensure more precise and stable work. It will be your perfect assistant to machine the flutes of a milling cutter, cut the teeth of a gear, mill curved slots, or drill a bolt hole circle around the circumference of a part.

The indexing head features a long service life due to its rigid quality. It is designed with a mirror finish that resists wear and tear and looks low-profile.

The dividing head is enabled to tilt from 10° below horizontal to 90° vertical. And that will be convenient if you want to cut the part from a certain angle.

The high precision performance of the indexing head is achieved with indirect indexing plates A, B, and C. All divisions 2-50 can be done, but some from 51 to 380 cannot be obtained. Check the manual before setting.

CNC Indexing & Feeding Technologies is proud to represent the TJR line of rotary tables, indexers and accessories. TJR originated as a rotary table sales and service agent and established itself as an OEM in 2009.

TJR tables feature an anti-wearing worm gear, durable, high-tensile brass shafts, and braking systems with a large clamping range. All new TJR tables come standard with a 3-year parts warranty.

Standard Rotary Tables. The AR Series is TJR’s standard 4th axis pneumatic brake rotary table. It is offered in both a Right hand motor mounting and Left hand motor mounting option. The HR Series is TJR’s standard hydraulic brake 4th axis rotary table.

CNC Indexing & Feeding Technologies offers a wide range of TJR rotary tables. However, many are unclear about what rotary tables can do for their business, as well as how they work in CNC machining. First, let’s consider the basics about a rotary table and how it works in the machining and manufacturing processes.

A lathe or milling machine requires its own set of parts to work sufficiently. For example, an indexing head is needed to allow circular shaping. The indexing element allows the piece to be rotated at an angle or even divided into sections.

A rotary table can tilt and rotate. The table makes use of the indexing head in order to cut according to a specific technique. This makes it possible for the machine to create a workpiece with complete flexibility in rotation and angling.

A rotary table can help to create arcs and circles, an important process in part or tool fabrication. Tools can be specially made, such as car parts, machine parts, and many other objects.

The CNC process lets companies make straight cuts even with multiple angles and to cut small objects into even smaller parts. CNC rotary tables can also help in the processes of cutting gears, drilling or cutting holes.

The table can also be used along with a dividing head and index plate, to further concentrate the shaping. Tables are also used to hold certain parts for superior milling techniques.

Adding rotary tables will improve your capacity to produce the parts you want and increase profits. This brings us to the primary advantage of CNC rotary tables: less time and greater accuracy in cutting.

The benefits of using cnc rotary tables include consistency, faster production and increased capacity. Products and work pieces assembled through CNC systems are more reliable than products created manually or through other methods. The process is identical each and every time, so consistency can be guaranteed. This is critical for a company trying to ensure safety protocol.

The capacity of complexity of product is another benefit. Complex motions are made simpler by CNC rotary tables, making them more affordable to produce.

Naturally, such an intricate process cannot be unsupervised, since efficiency depends on optimal performance. A supervisor must oversee a rotary table operating with CNC controls to ensure the machine and software are configured correctly.

We offer a wide variety of rotary tables to meet all of your needs. This includes standard rotary tables with full rotating axis capabilities, and vertical and horizontal mounting positions.

We also offer large rotary tables with hydraulic brake systems, which allow higher clamping torques. You can also find assistance with smaller rear mount rotary tables or tilt rotary tables.

Horizontal rotary tables are specially made for horizontal mounting and carrying a much heavier weight. Horizontal index tables are available, whether in manual or CNC index tables style. Finally, there are face gear rotary tables and rotary table accessories, ideal for projects that need higher degrees of accuracy.

CNC Indexing & Feeding Technologies can help you find the machine tool accessories you need to meet your production demands. This includes simple rotating feature, larger work pieces, vertical and horizontal applications, or even 4 or 5 axis work. With TJR rotary tables, you can improve your cycle and process time, reduce your down time and increase your profits.