All I can say is stay tuned. I'm working on a rotary table mod right now and I'm going to make a lock and see if it works. It would be a simple screw, one hole and a couple pieces of steel or aluminum.
-Tim ----- Original Message ----- From: "begatbrown" <darylmichaelsc...@gmail.com> To: "Legacy Ornamental Mills" <legacy-ornamental-mills@googlegroups.com> Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2011 11:06 AM Subject: Re: Looking for a Means of Locking the Rotary Table to make straight cuts Hello JWB and Tim, Thanks, I was able to get away without drilling holes! I have two strong (really strong) magnets and they were able pin in the small gear on either side. The small gear is the more important gear to attack. If you can hold its teeth still, then it locks its teeth into those on the larger gear. It also has the benefit of immobilizing the handle. Tim, I can see why you didn't create a device to lock down the small gear because it would be hard to get to. But if you could create a clamp that is screwed into the table and folds down on top of the small gear and meshes with its teeth, then it would truly stop all movement. It would also be a smaller device with the need for fewer teeth. Begat. On Apr 30, 12:57 pm, "Tim Krause" <artmarb...@comcast.net> wrote: > Begat, > > First you might want to look into why your rotary table is so loose. Tightening the four mounting screws and adding shims might tighten the table up. > > Locking the table is something we have talked about but never really found a solution. One thing that prevents the table from moving is hooking it up to the main spindle. With the gears engaged it will only move the amount of the backlash in the rotary table gears. > > Another simple idea that came up in the past is to use a "C" clamp between the waste board and the base to hold it in place. simple, cheap but may not be fast enough for you. > > Using a pin to lock the table in place with the aid of the large gear teeth gives you 2.25ยบ increments. So you can index 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 32, 40, 80, and 160 places. That might be too limiting. Is this what you where thinking or do you have the guts to actually drill index holes in your rotary table in the right place? > > I've been working on a clamping idea for way too long that just grabs the edge of the large gear but with my degree wheel that only leaves a small portion of the teeth to grab. This could be adequate but I have not tried it yet. I wanted something that would stay in place and is lever operated for fast on and off response. It also needs to be low profile in my opinion. > > On this same path, I came up with a way to mount index wheels on the bottom of the table and use a spring loaded pin to index the table. I have not decided how easy it was going to be to use so I've not taken it any further than thinking. Along with that idea comes a way to disengage the small gear from the table so it can be freely rotated quickly for the next index. > > Index plates added to the rotary table is not a new idea. I made a custom index plate for one of our members that had a boat load of holes. Here's a photo. > > He made his own version of the rotary table that exceeded the cost of legacy's but the design is more flexible and easier to use. The table can be used in a freely spinning mode or driven by a gear. He made a custom spring loaded arm that allowed him to index specific locations. The idea was to avoid counting and just move to the next hole. The increments got smaller as you moved inward. > > Here's his adjustable arm. > > It's a real piece of art what he came up with. > > I hope this helps in some way to get you thinking. I think it's a great topic to expand on. > > -Tim > > > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "begatbrown" <darylmichaelsc...@gmail.com> > To: "Legacy Ornamental Mills" <legacy-ornamental-mills@googlegroups.com> > Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2011 8:50 AM > Subject: Looking for a Means of Locking the Rotary Table to make straight cuts > > > Hello All, > > > I've been working on the template to make glue spars for columns, but > > have had problems with the rotary table drifting while I make cuts > > without turning. There is no lock for the handle and it occurs to me > > that I could drill a series of small holes in the table between the > > teeth and place pin in them to fix the table. (Oh, you alter-the- > > machine guys are a bad influence.) Before I get to drilling, I > > thought I check in to see whether someone has found another solution. > > I don't want to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to. > > > Begat > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Legacy Ornamental Mills" group. > > To post to this group, send email to legacy-ornamental-mills@googlegroups.com. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to legacy-ornamental-mills+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > > For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/legacy-ornamental-mills?hl=en. > > > > DSC05186.JPG > 624KViewDownload > > DSCN2815.jpg > 92KViewDownload -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Legacy Ornamental Mills" group. To post to this group, send email to legacy-ornamental-mills@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to legacy-ornamental-mills+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/legacy-ornamental-mills?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Legacy Ornamental Mills" group. To post to this group, send email to legacy-ornamental-mills@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to legacy-ornamental-mills+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/legacy-ornamental-mills?hl=en.
