# Mounting 4 jaw chuck to rotary table



## Goldigger (May 19, 2011)

I have a little problem, I want to mount a 4 jaw chuck to my vertex HV4 rotary table
But the problem is my rotary table only has 3 t slots, and a 4 jaw chuck has 4 mounting holes. has anyone found a a way of doing this?

Obviously i could buy another rotary table with 4 t slots, but the rotary table i have cost a fair bit.
Plus it is so much better than the Soba table i originally had but took it back to the shop, the soba one was so bad i'm put off buying anything made by soba.

My rotary table has a 2mt centre.


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## mzetati (May 19, 2011)

- a plate with 3 drilled holes to engage the t-nuts in the slots, and 4 tapped holes for the bolts from the chuck.
- two more holes in the chuck, 120deg each from one of the already present.

Marcello


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## Goldigger (May 19, 2011)

mzetati  said:
			
		

> - a plate with 3 drilled holes to engage the t-nuts in the slots, and 4 tapped holes for the bolts from the chuck.
> - two more holes in the chuck, 120deg each from one of the already present.
> 
> Marcello



Hi Marcello,
I can picture the 3 holes for the t slots and then the 4 tapped holes for the chuck.
please help me out as i cant picture the two holes in the chuck?

Should i make this plate from steel or ali?
Thanks


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## Goldigger (May 19, 2011)

I think one of these 100mm lathe back plates might fit the bill, would just need to drill and tap the holes.
http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/catalogue/Chucks/Lathe-Chuck-Backplates


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## mzetati (May 19, 2011)

Goldigger  said:
			
		

> please help me out as i cant picture the two holes in the chuck?



I see Your chuck has through holes, You may use one of them to engage the t-nut in the slot and drill two more to reach the other slots. Not that I'm warmly counseling You into drilling holes a brand new chuck.




			
				Goldigger  said:
			
		

> Should i make this plate from steel or ali?



I made mine of whatever material I had at hand, providing it was thick enough to accepth the bolt heads.
here's how I "solved the problem" when the table arrived:
































and the (barely visible) plate I made last week to mount a small vise:







Marcello


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## chucketn (May 20, 2011)

Goldigger,
I have the sam Rotary Table. I made a duplicate of the spindle nose on my 7x14 MicroMark lathe, mounted on a M2 taper. That way, I can use all my chucks and faceplate from the lathe, just swapping back and forth.

Chuck in E. TN


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## Goldigger (May 20, 2011)

I think i know what you mean.. do you have any pictures?
Do all your chucks have the same centre then?

As i'll be mounting a independant 4 jaw chuck its not vital i centre the chuck on the rotary table as i can just dial the work piece in to centre.


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## mzetati (May 20, 2011)

Goldigger  said:
			
		

> I think i know what you mean.. do you have any pictures?
> Do all your chucks have the same centre then?



Either that or he fits the lathe chucks together with their adapting plates to the spindle nose replica he has made for the rotary table.
Something I've had in mind for a while, particularly about the lathe ER-32 collet holder.
By now, I needed collet-held workpieces fitted into the rotary table only a coupla times: solved the problem by borrowing the MT2-ER32 holder from the mill and holding the bits through an MT2 collet + drawbar or drill chuck.











			
				Goldigger  said:
			
		

> As i'll be mounting a independant 4 jaw chuck its not vital i centre the chuck on the rotary table as i can just dial the work piece in to centre.




Having the means of moving the chuck from lathe to R-Table and back without disturbing the workpiece might get handy.
(Particularly when the sequence of operations was planned in wrong order).













Marcello


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## chucketn (May 20, 2011)

Marcello got it first guess. All 3 of my lathe chucks have an adapter to mount them to the lathe, the face plate doesn't need one. I will take pics tomorrow.

Chuck in E. TN


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## MachineTom (May 22, 2011)

If there is a threaded hole in the center of the chuck, make a backplate for the 4 jaw with a spigot to line up with thecenter hole of the table, and a bolt that engages the threaded center hole. With just one bolt holding on the chuck, I've not found anything the would loosen the chuck.


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## chucketn (May 24, 2011)

Goldigger, sorry to take so long to post pictures. Had some time today so I took several pics of my setup.
I had made a copy of my 7X late nose in an attempt to make my own RT. Rt worked but was not rugged enough. I then purchased a 4" Vertex RT and adapted the parts to it.
Pics here: http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss157/chucketn/Machining/Vertex Rotary Table/

Don't hesitate to ask questions or contact me off list if you need more info.

Chuck in E. TN


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## Goldigger (Jul 15, 2011)

How much clearance are you guys getting from the top of the chuck to the bottom of your cutter?

With the Vertex table and the HBM 100mm chuck my stack height is 127mm! if i put a 16mm end mill in my posilock end mill chuck i get 35mm clearance, that with out using a lathe backing plate to fix the chuck to the table. I was contemplating drilling and tapping the top of the rotary table.


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## Goldigger (Jul 16, 2011)

Does anyone know how to take the vertex 4 inch table apart? I need to know how much depth i can drill into on the table surface without going all the way through, which would allow nasties to get inside..


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## Maryak (Jul 16, 2011)

I would drill to the depth of the base of the tee slots.

Best Regards
Bob


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## Goldigger (Jul 17, 2011)

I took the rotary table apart last night (vertex 4 inch) there are 6 bolts in a circle that go into the underside of the table.
So if anyone else is thinking of drilling and tapping the table surface, might be a good idea to mark where the bolts sit so you dont end up fowling them when drilling.


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## Ken I (Jul 17, 2011)

Here's how I mount my 3 or 4 jaw from my lathe to the rotary table.





I have not bothered to locate this to the bore/taper of the rotary table but prefer instead to allow the float on the mounting bolts to accurately clock to centre.

The plate is also "sacrificial" in that I will quite happilly drill and tap holes in it (not done so yet) for mounting parts with bolts when clamps are inconvenient or get in the way.

Ken


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## Goldigger (Jul 17, 2011)

Completed mounting the chuck to the vertex 4 inch rotary table..
Centred the rotary table to the spindle and chucked a 2MT arbour in the centre of the table, It's one of those arbours with a soft end. Milled it down to a nice tight fit inside the centre of the 4 jaw chuck..25.25mm
Now your probably thinking why did i do that? because it centres the chuck before i tighten up the bolts(roughly)





The 4 jaw chuck is front mounting and the bolts have a PCD of 84mm. So drilled and tapped an M8 hole 42mm out from centre at 30,210,300 degrees on the table, the 4th bolt uses the T slot at 120 degrees.
The T slot wasn't deep enough to take the length of the M8 bolt, so i made a 10mm pocket..

Chuck mounted





I didnt have space for a back plate, and i thought that the M8 holes might come in handy when I need to clamp something down to the surface of the table. Although i probably will only use the 4 jaw chuck to hold objects.


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