Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Drilling radial holes
You can also use the rotary table as you would a dividing head. By moving
the dividing head round by the correct number of degrees, you can pitch out
holes on a PCD or any other angular co-ordinates. You can get a complete
set of dividing gear to fit some rotary tables (
see
Chapter 10
on using a divid-
ing head on the milling machine).
Milling radiating slots
You can mill radiating slots (slots that run straight from the outside of the plate
tothecentreorpartthereof)intoaplateinthesamewayaspitchingoutholes
but by winding the milling machine's table along the slots, indexing round the
required number of degrees and milling the next slot and so on.
Machining a large radius
Perhaps you need to turn the outside of a large diameter such as a traction
engine rim, but it is too big for the lathe. If you can mount the rim on a rotary
table you can mill the outside of the rim rather than turning it. As long as you
can set the wheel up central, it will be true with the outside of the rim.
OTHER METHODS OF USING THE ROTARY TABLE
Usually a rotary table can be mounted horizontally (flat to the table) or vertic-
ally (90 degrees to the table). It can also be mounted vertically in line with the
X axis or the Y axis. You can also get tailstocks for rotary tables. A typical use
for a rotary table in the vertical axis is to mill two faces parallel or at a precise
angle to each other.
Thinning down components
Although this method can be used on any shaped component, I have found it
most useful when finishing off components.
We have a pear-shaped component machined on a rectangular block of
metal that has a flange that was left when we made the shaped component.
