benchmaster rotary table price

The South Bend rotary table, in addition to being a worthy machine accessory, commands a fairly high collector premium. South Bend stuff is hot these days, and the rotary table is one of several that head the list of most desirable accessories.

As you can see, quite a range! One little exercise that might help is to convert the original selling price for the turntable to current dollars. For example, the RTB101 sold new in 1963 for $61.75. Converting this price to 2009 dollars gives you $453.82(!) This is what the same item might sell for today, if it was still being sold. From this point, one needs to factor in all manner of subjective criteria, such as collector premium (how many people want one?), condition, how badly you want it, how badly the seller wants to sell it, your relationship with the seller, etc.

There’s a Benchmaster mill being advertised locally for $1,400. They are nice little mills for working on small parts. I milled a new set of brass jaws for my Wilton bench vise on mine, and they came out beautiful. The mill itself weighs on the order of 250 lbs, so moving it is easy. To get mine set up I simply picked it up with my hands and placed it on my work bench. I’ve had several people ask what I want for it, and I refuse to sell it. It’s simply too useful. Mine came complete with a full set of collets. Often they only come with the collet that is mounted in the machine. And the collets are not easy to find. So that is something to look for.

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

The Benchmaster is a small Bridgeport-styled vertical mill. Unlike most bench top mills, the Benchmaster uses a knee for the Z-axis, rather than a moving headstock. Although this makes for a relatively stiff machine, it also makes the mill heavy, and limits the total headroom. It was sold in both vertical and horizontal models – I have the vertical model, but would be very interested in acquiring the parts to convert to a horizontal. For more information on the Benchmaster, check out the Benchmaster page at the excellent lathes.co.uk site.

So far, I’ve replaced the drive motor and belt, trammed in the machine, and installed an ER-25 collet set. I’ve also picked up an original Benchmaster rotary table – a good find, since most currently produced rotary tables are significantly taller, and eat away at the machine’s already-limited headroom. In the future, I want to completely restore the machine, add DROs and a back gearing system, and ideally convert it to dual-use manual/CNC like this guy did – it’s going to definitely take a little while before I can get there, though.

Thanks guys! Yes, it is a very neat little mill. Since I"m completely green to this I"ve just been tinkering on it and getting used to the way it behaves. I also just won a 6" benchmaster rotary table on ebay to match the mill. Does anybody know anything about the base on my machine. I"ve only seen one other base like mine. Maybe it was a rarely bought accessory?