I recently had the need to make some parts that required indexing and drilling hole and some light milling. Up to today I did have a rotary table or a 5c spin indexer.
After a couple of weeks of fussing and wasting much time researching, making up my mind, second guessing my decision, researching some more, loosing more sleep trying to decide, making up my mind a second time and then going through the whole process at least three more times; I finally made a final decision. Yes indeed, I did. I went to the store messed about with some of their offerings for at 2 hours, made a decision, changed it, changed back and in the end I went with my instinct, plunked my money on the table and carted off home a 6" rotary table.
To be fair, my indexing needs where quite simple and I could have easily accomplished the same with the 5c collect spin indexer. I have 5c collets and making up an arbor to hold my parts would be dead easy. I however constantly worry about the future and what I will want to do tomorrow, next week and even next year. I prefer as most would to get the most bang for buck so I had early on leaned over the fence more towards a rotary table (but the spin indexer was never far from my thoughts).
When I finally dismissed the idea of the spin indexer as being OK for the task at hand but not holding near as much potential as a rotary table I narrowed on having to decide between a 4" or 6" table. I have often kicked myself (rather hard at that) for taking the cheap road or choosing something on the small side as it seemed to have I what I needed. These sorts of choices have always come back to haunt and my instinct was telling me to get the 6" rotary table.
Now you need to understand, I don't have a vertical mil but I do some light milling on my lathe (a 10 x 22 size) and even some on my drill press, very light indeed on the drill press but it gets the job done when nothing else will do.
What I finally decided on was this: http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=B061
BusyBee tools is like a small Canadian version of Grizzly tools and they also have this other 6" rotary table:
http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=B2485
This the 4" table I had in my wanderings also considered: http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=B2724
This long story has brought me (finally) to my pondering.
The rotary table I brought home looks identical to the Vertex 6" rotary table however is labeled as with the brand name of Yiyen Tzu Yen Industrial Co. Ltd. Precision Machine Tool Taiwan.
From my readings I found that Vertex rotary tables where well regarded and part of my choice was based on this rotary table being identical to the Vertex and quite possibly just a re-branded version.
But is it?
Is a Yiyen just a re-branded Vertex or is a Vertex a re-branded Yiyen or is one or the other a copy of the other?
The Vertex manual I have is nearly identical to the manual provided with my rotary table (or is it the other way round?). Parts numbers are the same as is the nomenclature used in the manuals. Vertex refers to the tables as HV (for horizontal and vertical) and the Yiyen refers to the tables THV.
Anyone provide some light on this paradox?
In any respect, I am quite pleased with my purchase. Some cleaning up and a wee bit of tweaking and I will be all set.
It was even on sale. It is a bit large for my lathe and my drill press but not overly so; the 4" table would have been a bit the small side. Too bad they done (at least I couldn't find any reference) a 5" rotary table.
cheers, Graham in Ottawa Canada
After a couple of weeks of fussing and wasting much time researching, making up my mind, second guessing my decision, researching some more, loosing more sleep trying to decide, making up my mind a second time and then going through the whole process at least three more times; I finally made a final decision. Yes indeed, I did. I went to the store messed about with some of their offerings for at 2 hours, made a decision, changed it, changed back and in the end I went with my instinct, plunked my money on the table and carted off home a 6" rotary table.
To be fair, my indexing needs where quite simple and I could have easily accomplished the same with the 5c collect spin indexer. I have 5c collets and making up an arbor to hold my parts would be dead easy. I however constantly worry about the future and what I will want to do tomorrow, next week and even next year. I prefer as most would to get the most bang for buck so I had early on leaned over the fence more towards a rotary table (but the spin indexer was never far from my thoughts).
When I finally dismissed the idea of the spin indexer as being OK for the task at hand but not holding near as much potential as a rotary table I narrowed on having to decide between a 4" or 6" table. I have often kicked myself (rather hard at that) for taking the cheap road or choosing something on the small side as it seemed to have I what I needed. These sorts of choices have always come back to haunt and my instinct was telling me to get the 6" rotary table.
Now you need to understand, I don't have a vertical mil but I do some light milling on my lathe (a 10 x 22 size) and even some on my drill press, very light indeed on the drill press but it gets the job done when nothing else will do.
What I finally decided on was this: http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=B061
BusyBee tools is like a small Canadian version of Grizzly tools and they also have this other 6" rotary table:
http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=B2485
This the 4" table I had in my wanderings also considered: http://busybeetools.ca/cgi-bin/picture10?NTITEM=B2724
This long story has brought me (finally) to my pondering.
The rotary table I brought home looks identical to the Vertex 6" rotary table however is labeled as with the brand name of Yiyen Tzu Yen Industrial Co. Ltd. Precision Machine Tool Taiwan.
From my readings I found that Vertex rotary tables where well regarded and part of my choice was based on this rotary table being identical to the Vertex and quite possibly just a re-branded version.
But is it?
Is a Yiyen just a re-branded Vertex or is a Vertex a re-branded Yiyen or is one or the other a copy of the other?
The Vertex manual I have is nearly identical to the manual provided with my rotary table (or is it the other way round?). Parts numbers are the same as is the nomenclature used in the manuals. Vertex refers to the tables as HV (for horizontal and vertical) and the Yiyen refers to the tables THV.
Anyone provide some light on this paradox?
In any respect, I am quite pleased with my purchase. Some cleaning up and a wee bit of tweaking and I will be all set.
It was even on sale. It is a bit large for my lathe and my drill press but not overly so; the 4" table would have been a bit the small side. Too bad they done (at least I couldn't find any reference) a 5" rotary table.
cheers, Graham in Ottawa Canada
