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Super Spacer or Dividing Head

It all depends upon what you are making. For bolt circles and other work where you are just drilling holes or adding features at fixed points and don't need to rotate the spacer while milling, the superspacer is probably quicker to use. If you are doing work where you need to rotate the work while cutting, a dividing head or rotary table will work better. If you are planning to cut gears, machine helixes or do other work where you need to integrate rotary motion with motion of the table a dividing head will be required.

I have a rotary table and superspacer and use both. I'm not doing any work where I need a dividing head
 
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dividng head. Greater cability with the number of divisions possible, also allows algular settngs in a downward drection and upward to 90* vertical. I've never seen a super spacer which mounts any other than flat or a 90*. Didn't say there may not be one.
 
I have 3 dividing heads and 0 super spacers. If you are doing production indexing a super spacer really can shine. Less chance of a whoops! As pointed out elsewhere a 4th axis cnc unit can be nice as well.
 
I have a Vertex super spacer, which is basically a rotary table with a chuck on it. It has a dividing feature as well as handle with divisions like a rotary table. I find that it is one of the most useful pieces of tooling I have. I find I use it alot more than a dividing head or a plain rotary table.
 
I have both along with a rotary table and each has its place depending upon the job. As for angles, well mounting a super spacer or the rotary on a sine table takes care of that. Again it all depends upon the job and which machine it will be done on.
 
thanks for the replies. I have a super spacer and a rotary table, but was offered one over the weekend, and before I gave in to my iron addiction, I wanted to see if I could really justify it. I tend to buy things that give me the ability to do things in the future as well as right now.

And I also wasn't sure if the dividing head would make the super spacer redundant and therefore expendable
 
Long answer: I have a bunch of (mostly Hardinge) dividing heads and indexers. The last thing i would voluntarily give up would be a dividing head with a good sized through hole and collet capacity. I do use the tilt feature more than I would have imagined.

Short answer: "didn't we just do this question within the past few months, for about the 6th time?" Hit the search button you should be able to find quite a few opinions and longer answers.

smt
 
stephen thomas said:
Long answer: I have a bunch of (mostly Hardinge) dividing heads and indexers. The last thing i would voluntarily give up would be a dividing head with a good sized through hole and collet capacity. I do use the tilt feature more than I would have imagined.

Short answer: "didn't we just do this question within the past few months, for about the 6th time?" Hit the search button you should be able to find quite a few opinions and longer answers.

smt
Click to expand...

Short answer would be yes, I believe as recently as 10/1.

Long answer would be, the first page of results didn't have anything that I saw that really spoke to differences between the two and whether it really warranted having both.

For the record, I liked your long answer better..lol
 
I have a 6" and an 8" super spacer, a 12"horizontal / vertical, a 16" horizontal rotary table and a dividing head and tail stock. They all get used regularly. Although I find myself using the rotary tables and super spacers less since I got the Centroid control for my Bridgeport mill, It is so easy to program that it is just easier to use it instead.
 
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