Thanks I am 70 years old just starting out I can’t wait to get started I’m preparing my shop now for a Milling Machine and a wave I just bought a used surface grinder off of eBay
That looks really nice for the price. I've been looking for a small dividing head for a project that's coming up and this looks like it might be just the tool for the job. Thanks for putting together such thorough review. It was super helpful.
Looks pretty decent for the money, especially if your like me and you use a rotary table once a year or so just to get you out of a pinch, with a dro and some trig you can do 99% of everything it can do without setting up the rotary.
I bought a Vertex 8" RT about a year ago. Really wanted a 10" but they are too heavy for an old guy. What I quickly found out was, by the time you get the work clamped on the table you run out of space very quickly. I have a DRO on the mill so it is quicker to use that than the RT for bolt hole circles. I ended up casting an 11" aluminum table with T slots to gain some clamping area. I also made some extension tee nuts that increase my available diameter. Just can't tighten them super hard. I have a direct mount, 8" 3 jaw for use on the RT but haven't used it very often. By the time the RT has the chuck mounted and your tooling in place it eats up most of your Z axis. I've only used the RT vertically 3 times in a year. Twice to make gears. I don't have gear cutters so I single point cut. Terribly slow. Joe Pie as good videos on using the RT. Are you having fun with your RT? Let us know how it has worked out for you.
Mine looked ok but the table ran 10thou eccentric to the tables spindle and the mt2 bore ran 4thou out and was 2thou oval. Half an hour in the 4jaw and it's spot on now. Also made all new knobs and hardware as originals were pretty bad. A cheap kit that can be made to be very accurate.
I just got fed up with it and bought a Vertex 4". The quality seems much better. I'm waiting for a new Vertex 4" chuck to put on it. Buy nice or buy twice and I'm a bad example of that.
Looks like a nice piece of equipment. Did it come with keys to index the slots on the bottom of the table and tail piece to the slots in your milling table?
I've had one for a couple of years and I think it sucks. The chuck is .015" out so you center the chuck and the work is not centered. The table moves when I tighten the clamps. Whichever clamp you tighten first pulls that side of the table down. It gives me trouble every time I use it.
Santo Pezzotti I have the Grizzly G0704, it is serving me very well but you should take a look at the Precision Matthews too. I was able to get it down into my basement pretty easy with the help of my son.
I was able to move my G0704 from my garage to my basement by myself by taking it apart into 5 or 6 pieces. There is a video of someone else doing the same here on youtube somewhere. It needed to be cleaned up, lubricated and trammed anyway. I had to take it apart again later to drill and tap for the DRO scales.
Virtually identical to the SOBA 5" rotary table. I've got the SOBA 6" with all the accesories and seems to be better manufactured than this 5" sample of yours.
you`ll be buying a new chuck soon. i have this same rotary table and the scroll broke in the chuck after only 5 uses. now it is useless. grizzly is embarrassing us machine shops.
Bison Workshop so far so good, used in t several times. I think if anything was going to the chuck is the most disposable part of the kit. You can still hold work down using straps or a mini pallet.
$315!!! that's incredible, thank you for the overview
Thanks I am 70 years old just starting out I can’t wait to get started I’m preparing my shop now for a Milling Machine and a wave I just bought a used surface grinder off of eBay
That looks really nice for the price. I've been looking for a small dividing head for a project that's coming up and this looks like it might be just the tool for the job. Thanks for putting together such thorough review. It was super helpful.
Looks pretty decent for the money, especially if your like me and you use a rotary table once a year or so just to get you out of a pinch, with a dro and some trig you can do 99% of everything it can do without setting up the rotary.
Erstwhile yeah I know, I got a few upcoming projects that i want use the rotary table and tailstock to hold the work in the horizontal position.
I wrote a handy little program for the dividing plates and I would be glad to give you a copy
Ron Becker sure I would like to take a look at it.
I bought a Vertex 8" RT about a year ago. Really wanted a 10" but they are too heavy for an old guy. What I quickly found out was, by the time you get the work clamped on the table you run out of space very quickly. I have a DRO on the mill so it is quicker to use that than the RT for bolt hole circles. I ended up casting an 11" aluminum table with T slots to gain some clamping area. I also made some extension tee nuts that increase my available diameter. Just can't tighten them super hard. I have a direct mount, 8" 3 jaw for use on the RT but haven't used it very often. By the time the RT has the chuck mounted and your tooling in place it eats up most of your Z axis. I've only used the RT vertically 3 times in a year. Twice to make gears. I don't have gear cutters so I single point cut. Terribly slow. Joe Pie as good videos on using the RT. Are you having fun with your RT? Let us know how it has worked out for you.
Mine looked ok but the table ran 10thou eccentric to the tables spindle and the mt2 bore ran 4thou out and was 2thou oval.
Half an hour in the 4jaw and it's spot on now. Also made all new knobs and hardware as originals were pretty bad. A cheap kit that can be made to be very accurate.
Very cool. I was looking at one like that. But found a big 12" on CL.
I just got fed up with it and bought a Vertex 4". The quality seems much better. I'm waiting for a new Vertex 4" chuck to put on it. Buy nice or buy twice and I'm a bad example of that.
Looks like a nice piece of equipment. Did it come with keys to index the slots on the bottom of the table and tail piece to the slots in your milling table?
Robert Oswalt no it didn’t come with keys.
I've had one for a couple of years and I think it sucks. The chuck is .015" out so you center the chuck and the work is not centered. The table moves when I tighten the clamps. Whichever clamp you tighten first pulls that side of the table down. It gives me trouble every time I use it.
Hi what size milling Milling Machine do you have I would like to buy one I’m worried that it will be too big and too heavy
Santo Pezzotti I have the Grizzly G0704, it is serving me very well but you should take a look at the Precision Matthews too. I was able to get it down into my basement pretty easy with the help of my son.
I was able to move my G0704 from my garage to my basement by myself by taking it apart into 5 or 6 pieces. There is a video of someone else doing the same here on youtube somewhere. It needed to be cleaned up, lubricated and trammed anyway. I had to take it apart again later to drill and tap for the DRO scales.
Do you still like the rotary table?
Yes, it serves my purposes well on a small milling machine
Virtually identical to the SOBA 5" rotary table. I've got the SOBA 6" with all the accesories and seems to be better manufactured than this 5" sample of yours.
you`ll be buying a new chuck soon. i have this same rotary table and the scroll broke in the chuck after only 5 uses. now it is useless. grizzly is embarrassing us machine shops.
Bison Workshop so far so good, used in t several times. I think if anything was going to the chuck is the most disposable part of the kit. You can still hold work down using straps or a mini pallet.
Then don’t do the unboxing!