What's new
What's new

Standalone indexing head?

Gos

Aluminum
Joined
Oct 14, 2008
Location
Western Washington
I’m looking for a standalone small rotary table / indexing chuck for indexing drilling on a Milling Machine. Parts are smaller than 1.25” x 6”.
Any suggestions?
 
If 24 position indexing (with an option for 20 positions) is satisfactory, you might look into the Hardinge horizontal/vertical 5C indexing collet chucks with a spindle nose. The nose allows you to mount conventional chucks or step chuck (oversize collet) closers for workpieces larger than a standard 5C collet will hold. (Be advised that the Japanese copies of these Hardinge collet chucks might not use the same nose thread for mounting accessories. You can get chuck backplates to fit the copies, but nobody makes the step chuck closers in anything but the Hardinge taper nose or threaded nose varieties.)

Other than that, you should probably look for a minimum 9", preferably 10" or larger, rotary table. It can take depressing amount of table real-estate to locate and clamp your workpieces, even if smaller than 6" in every dimension.
 
Actually, I'd neglected to mention the Hardinge dividing head, J_R_Thiele. It is another option, but probably twice the price of the H/V indexing collet chucks.
 
The Hardinge 24 (or other custom plates) indexer is on the left in this picture with an expansion collet. It is horizontal or vertical. Sometime called a "Tree" fixture in this area due to the casting source, they are available with a flat nose as seen here, (no external spindle extension), or with the Hardinge threaded nose or the Hardinge taper nose to take chucks and pot chuck closers for over size collets.

dividingstuff.jpg


There's an egg case and an older square case Hardinge DH's in the picture, too. The TS is for the Tree fixture, it is too tall center height for the DH's.

The correct TS for Hardinge DH's is open straight through the casting, and has a 3-5/8" center height.

smt_pinioncutting3.jpg


The Hardinge Dividing head on ebay posted above has a lot of issues.

It is missing the collet draw tube and the "wrench" - a sleeve with a knob wheel that friction fits in the drawtube to operate it.

HBdividedrawtube4.jpg


The "knob wrench and the draw tube are shown assembled top left, and on the bottom right partially assembled with the additional strap wrench used to operate them. It will often cost more than a chuck, to acquire these parts separately, when they can be found at all.

The Ebay Hardinge DH is also missing the TS, another not easy to find accessory.

The clamp screw that is buggered up is not a simple deal. I have made them out of S7. Besides being an "interesting" job; dis-assembling, re-assembling and timing the parts is not trivial.

smt_HBDHclamp2.jpg


One thing I did on the new one was roto-broach the allen socket deeper and the next size larger. I "think" I made the journal a little larger too, and re-bored the top nut to match.

The eBay unit casting was broken and repaired at one time, down where the prongs for the plate clamp bears. Looks like both sides were broken given the size of the repair parts. That said, the repair looks like it was probably well done. Look at the last photo, and the let-in piece at the bottom left. There's also some "non-factory" excavation around the hold-down screw holes. Despite ad claim to the contrary, that DH has been beat up a bit; possibly dropped. Though there are several ways to break the clamp ring retainer casting.

Finally it appears to only have one 3 row division plate. Hardinge DH's are 4:1. So you need a lot of plates to get a full complement of dividing options. Or some of the older plates with more rows.

The chuck only has one set of jaws.

caveat emptor.

smt
 
The Hardinge 24 (or other custom plates) indexer is on the left in this picture with an expansion collet. It is horizontal or vertical. Sometime called a "Tree" fixture in this area due to the casting source, they are available with a flat nose as seen here, (no external spindle extension), or with the Hardinge threaded nose or the Hardinge taper nose to take chucks and pot chuck closers for over size collets.

dividingstuff.jpg


There's an egg case and an older square case Hardinge DH's in the picture, too. The TS is for the Tree fixture, it is too tall center height for the DH's.

The correct TS for Hardinge DH's is open straight through the casting, and has a 3-5/8" center height.

smt_pinioncutting3.jpg


The Hardinge Dividing head on ebay posted above has a lot of issues.

It is missing the collet draw tube and the "wrench" - a sleeve with a knob wheel that friction fits in the drawtube to operate it.

HBdividedrawtube4.jpg


The "knob wrench and the draw tube are shown assembled top left, and on the bottom right partially assembled with the additional strap wrench used to operate them. It will often cost more than a chuck, to acquire these parts separately, when they can be found at all.

The Ebay Hardinge DH is also missing the TS, another not easy to find accessory.

The clamp screw that is buggered up is not a simple deal. I have made them out of S7. Besides being an "interesting" job; dis-assembling, re-assembling and timing the parts is not trivial.

smt_HBDHclamp2.jpg


One thing I did on the new one was roto-broach the allen socket deeper and the next size larger. I "think" I made the journal a little larger too, and re-bored the top nut to match.

The eBay unit casting was broken and repaired at one time, down where the prongs for the plate clamp bears. Looks like both sides were broken given the size of the repair parts. That said, the repair looks like it was probably well done. Look at the last photo, and the let-in piece at the bottom left. There's also some "non-factory" excavation around the hold-down screw holes. Despite ad claim to the contrary, that DH has been beat up a bit; possibly dropped. Though there are several ways to break the clamp ring retainer casting.

Finally it appears to only have one 3 row division plate. Hardinge DH's are 4:1. So you need a lot of plates to get a full complement of dividing options. Or some of the older plates with more rows.

The chuck only has one set of jaws.

caveat emptor.

smt

Wow! Sharp eye, and, thanks for the education! :)

Cheers
Trev
 
I’m looking for a standalone small rotary table / indexing chuck for indexing drilling on a Milling Machine. Parts are smaller than 1.25” x 6”.
Any suggestions?

Thanks. I unfortunately left out a huge item on the request. I am looking for stand alone CNC system, to replace my Superspacer. Sorry for the lack of information.
 
I unfortunately left out a huge item on the request. I am looking for stand alone CNC system, to replace my Superspacer. Sorry for the lack of information.
 
I unfortunately left out a huge item on the request. I am looking for stand alone CNC system, to replace my Superspacer. Sorry for the lack of information.

Should have posted it in the "CNC section".....
 








 
Back
Top