- Thread starter Burdekin
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AndyStobbs
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Brown and sharpe. Copied by Vertex, look on ebay, myford sell them.
tinman123
Putting the Extra into ordinary.
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have you a specif job in mind for one, id take it you have when your looking for one mind you.
i was looking for one a while back, i bought a rotary table in the same time and im struggling to see how much use id actuallt get out of one unless im going cutting gears or something along those lines.
i will still buy one but im not in any rush for now.
if you keep an eye on the bay there is a good selection most of the time, they make round the 3-500 mark a lot of the time but would be decent sized ones at that, 6" chucks and above.
i was looking for one a while back, i bought a rotary table in the same time and im struggling to see how much use id actuallt get out of one unless im going cutting gears or something along those lines.
i will still buy one but im not in any rush for now.
if you keep an eye on the bay there is a good selection most of the time, they make round the 3-500 mark a lot of the time but would be decent sized ones at that, 6" chucks and above.
Burdekin
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I'm just about to give my milling machine a good thorough clean and service and also do the small room it is in up with a lick of paint and a new strip light. I haven't got any jobs at the moment, a few ideas but I also want to improve my workshop capabilities. At the moment it's well down the list but if I see a good deal about locally I would grab it otherwise it will need to wait. I was mainly wanting to know of good brands to keep an eye out for.
addjunkie
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Dont know what machine you have, but they take up a lot more space on the table then they look as if they will in the pictures.
Also a tip.......wear your reading glasses to make sure you select the right holes. I was making a toothed wheel a while ago, with 29 teeth, to take a belt and drive the blower.
It looked great when done, assembled it, the fing belt wouldnt sit on the teeth, much head scratching, re measure .....frustration, much and then my daughter said, count the teeth.........28.....more ornimental scrap.
Also a tip.......wear your reading glasses to make sure you select the right holes. I was making a toothed wheel a while ago, with 29 teeth, to take a belt and drive the blower.
It looked great when done, assembled it, the fing belt wouldnt sit on the teeth, much head scratching, re measure .....frustration, much and then my daughter said, count the teeth.........28.....more ornimental scrap.
addjunkie
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Problem with little machining jobs most folks dont realise how long they can take, and think for example youve a mill you can knock me out a nice pair of chunky motorcycle yokes, wont take long with a mill. No problem......but the metal will be about a hundred quid and itll take me probably 20 hours in total thats x pounds, not usually so keen then.
Burdekin
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Yep for sure, jobs like that some folk won't know the amount it would cost. I won't be taking any big jobs. It's not a business so I'm not trying to make a living by it. I have a mate for example who does VW campers and he often has wee jobs for me and they're the type of things I thought folk might want doing. I will also do bodywork repairs to classic cars, but no restos. If someone has some bodywork for example that they can't buy a repair panel for I would make one. Door reskins that sort of thing. I'm fully set up for this sort of work. Anything I make will just go back into the workshop.
tinman123
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i trained on mills and lathes when i learned my trade, and would of worked them in the time i was employed here and there but i was away from a mill for a long time since i went self employed about 15 yrs ago but last year i bought a bridgeport mill with a 2j head on it, a fair tidy one.
so since then ive been buying bits and pieces of tooling for it here and there, Not a cheap hobby.....
if your planning on cutting gears or as i said something along those lines then by all means go for the dividing head.
but if your looking to drill holes in a plate or pipe at a certain degree apart ( down to the minutes or at least as close as a dial can get you to them ) then id say a rotary table will be a far better choice for you id say.
its a lot lighter, easier to dial in, and to me its a hell of a lot more universal than a dividing head.
now dont get me wrong, the dividing head is, as paddy would say " spot on" and again, im not sure how precise a pattern of holes you want to work to but with a dividing head your bang on the money when it comes to dividing up something.
this is a rotary table i bought about 8 mths ago, its identical to the vertex offering of today but this one would be older school than vertex, i cant rem the name on it but its a fairly good quality one as i didnt want crap.
id guess its right up your street more than a dividing head but again, im only guessing but for the work youve described already a dividing head would be well overkill.
that 10" rotary table there was bought for £140 which was cheap imo seeing since it had done little to nothing when i got it.
it also has the added advantage of being able to stand up like a dividing head would sit so i can do shafts as well which is what i wanted from a rotary table if i got one, a lot dont have the added advantage.
tinman123
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i had a job in here a few weeks ago, i was trying to get finished up before my hernia operation so i hadnt time to do everything, so on one job i got an engineering crowd to make me up some bushings.
4x bushings in total,
2 x 50mm round En8 stock 66mm long with a 31mm hole bored in them and machined out on either side for a press fit bushing to 34mmx20mm.
and 2 more bushings 60mm od and 70mm long bored out the same as the other two for a bush and made out of
En8.
£45+v for the lot..............
it id hardly pay you at times imo, but like a lot of folk i just want my way of working but you would have to wonder..
and thats only on a lathe where the setting up is handy.
as you say, i often spent hours and hours setting up something on the mill only to spend 30 mins doing the job, its hard to get paid for that craic.
altho location has something to do with things too, round here there is no industry left so its mostly all farmers now.
Burdekin
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I'm a time served fitter and machinist so doing the work is no problem. I'm not trying to make money, if folk aren't willing to pay then it doesn't bother me. But try and get anyone round here to do proper weld repairs on a classic car, there isn't anyone. The company I know are good painters but not good fabricators. Getting small engineering work done round here is hard and expensive. I only want small occasional jobs, I think there will be plenty of that type of thing and it will by the hour. If folk don't want to pay then they can go somewhere else.
tinman123
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and arent you right.
you need to take the work thats there in front of you and tbh its not bad work compared to working on the likes of heavy gear.
and it dose sound like there is a nice niece opening for what your doing so it will pan out ok, sounds like your in the right place too.
best wishes with the venture.
tinman123
Putting the Extra into ordinary.
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yep, turning up a rotary table with a full set of plates isnt a common thing from what ive seen.
iirc the option is there on mine to convert it as well but i didnt bother, yet anyways.
i think if i was that far id buy the dividing head personally as the gear for the rotary could add up and still not be the real deal, but it id be close.
Burdekin
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Ah yes. That was is the correct attitude.
addjunkie
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There are more expensive hobbies. If it flys, floats, or has sex, it should be rented.
