A Rotary Table from Scrap

Terry Cleife explains an interesting approach to improvising a rotary table

- Terry Cleife

When overhauling an antique petrol engine, a set of DP16 timing gears had to be made. They would be three spur gears with 70 teeth and two with 140 teeth. At this point it was obvious that the 140 tooth blanks at 8.875 inches OD would not fit vertically in the usual way under the cutter of the horizontal mill. Some lateral thought was therefore required. The solution was to make a worm and wheel rotary table to mount the blanks horizontally on the mill table then cut the teeth using the Z-axis. The scrap box as usual provided enough material for a zero-cost option, photo 1.