Technical Do they make a rotary table for a drill press?

First off, I am no machinist, so don't confuse a brother with a bunch of X-Y-Z axis talk.
I just want to drill some backing plates and I am a little CDO (OCD but in the right order) about spacing etc.

I was reading some of the posts from days gone by and a guy had built a jig to mount it to his Bridgeport mill. I am a poor cracker, so a drill press will have to do.

Thoughts? Links? Pics?

 

Certainly you could do it in a drill press with a rotary table. The problem is they are expensive. Come in all sizes, so if you can borrow one its a great Idea

 

Look up dividing head

 

Oh no, you're no tricking me a 42nd time.......

 

Dividing heads are wonderful too but not likely something you'll find at the neighbors. doesnt the table on your drill press rotate? that would be all you need to go in circles if you marked it all out some how. As in, no degree increments on your table

 

No, mine is stationary. I have an older version of this. Mine doesn't move though. Well, at least I don't think it does. Now, I'll have to go check...
https://www.grizzly.com/products/gr...DiBU_5gOLd65UJXiD0XBHFUyZTvFP-oEaAvSxEALw_wcB

 

Layout a grid.
Center punch the line intersections.
Clamp, drill, repeat

 

That's what I will probably end up doing. I just thought if it was cheap enough, it might speed things up a bit.

 

Does the wife have a "lazy susan" in the kitchen? , A good sturdy one ?

 

I was wondering about an old rotor I have in the scrap pile.

 

You have to think about what things weigh and if it would deflect your presses table.
I’ve two drill presses, one from Post Tool (before HF got big) the other an off shore one as well. The rotary tables I’ve seen for mills would surely deflect both of them.

Edit: also you need to locate the center. For mills you chuck up a gauge, locate the center of the holder, it’s (I know you don’t want to hear this) a lot of X and Y movements, which a drill press doesn’t have. So you’d be tapping here, tapping there on the rotary table for a long time to get it centered.
I’m not even a wart on a machinist ass, but I did take the introductory shop at JC back in the day.

 

How about starting with a front wheel hub from the junkyard (Toyota Tacoma) and make some adapters for the backing plate and to anchor to the drill press. Make the bottom plate moveable on the drill press table so you can do off sets with it locked down.

You can also use it to weld in the centers of wheels or anything that needs to turn true.

 

And if you do get a rotary table for your drill press, don't try to use it to cut circular slots! Drill press don't have much for side loading and you will wear it out fast.

 

Basically the answer to your question is "No". Now let me qualify this by saying its not impossible, but you would need to be able to make some things or do some things in order to get what you want.

Here is the reason why. When you set a rotary table up on a milling machine, the first thing you do is use a dial indicator and indicate the hole in the center of the rotary table until you have it centered under the drill chuck you have in the mill.

You can do the same thing with your drill press.

The next step is where the problem arises.
You now need to be able to move the rotary table to the left (or right) half the diameter of your bolt pattern. 4.500 bolt pattern= 2.250 to the left.

While you are doing that, you have to also keep that rotary table from moving forward or backward as you move it sideways. Not really any good/accurate way to do that.

So basically the problem is the inability to put the rotary table in the correct location. If you could do that, then Yes, you could drill the holes in the right place.

I would look for a used small mill/drill for your shop as it would allow you to do a lot of smaller jobs.

As for the rotor you have. If you have a friend with a lathe, he could turn the excess off the rotor to make it handier. Then bore it if too small or make a bushing if its to large.........so that it slips over the brake you want to drill and becomes a drill fixture. Knock the studs out of the holes and look on Ebay for a "drill bushing" thats the same size as the stud holes. Doesn't matter what the inside of the drill bushing is.

A drill bushing is a hardened bushing with a shoulder on it. It slips into a hole and provides a way to use a small drill bit to be run thru it so you can make a pilot hole. Then remove the bushing and drill the finished hole size.



One other thing: If anyone is thinking about buying a rotary table, realize that they make small ones, but the problem is that they often are not overly accurate and they are so small that there is no room for the clamps you need to hold your part to them, unless your part already has some holes in it. I'd look for a 10" diameter as its usually light enough for a home shop. As they get bigger, they usually get LOTS heavier. I have 2 of them. I cannot lift the larger one. BUT..........it will do a lot of things the 10" cant's. Got lucky and picked them up at auctions years ago.


Edit: One correction........They do make rotary table which incorporate sideways movement. You can move them left/right as well as in/out. I don't know how much movement they are capable of and I have never personally seen one.....but they have some on Ebay. I would not buy anything smaller than 8" preferably 10".

 

Was just using the rotary table this week but what you need to look at is the lathe chuck
Old lathe chucks are readily available and adaptable for many uses
This one is mounted on a plate that centers on the hole in the table

 

There is a small one on ebay now for $100.

 

Use this lathe chuck in the drill press all the time for round stock just hold it with a wrench use a small chuck in the lathe for smaller parts

 

Basically, I have a set of 53-56 F250 backing plates for my next build. I just thought it would be cool to drill so cooling holes, maybe add some air scoops etc and down the rabbit hole I went. That’s my life in a nutshell.

I blame @117harv. He started this mess.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/drilling-backing-plates.465742/

 

I have a 12" rotary table on my mill. I have seen some really small tables, maybe around 8".
This is an eBay special for $220.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/225033945683?hash=item3465118253:g:VRoAAOSwmTlirEb1
Then you have to get into a fixture to mount whatever you are working on. Then get a good central plug made up to keep it all centered. You can go without a center plug/pin but have to clamp the piece down and indicate the center.

 

No rotary table, but I do have a cross feed table bolted down on my 17" radial drill press...

 

Just eyeball the darn thing and do it with a hand drill. You'll be more than close enough that anybody, including you, who walks by will look at em and go, "geeze he even ventilated the backing plates!" Sometimes we over think these things. I doubt the average hot rodder back in the day had access to rotary tables and dividing heads!

 

^^^^ What he said. Accurate layout, start each hole with a center drill and have at it.
Better yet, forget the “hole thing” and just add some nice scoops and a screened outlet.

 

Machine Shops have everything.
You hand over your parts and a sketch of what you want.
A couple days later, you give 'em some cash and pick up your finished parts.
It's what Machine Shops are for.

 

The thing about having a mill and/or a lathe is that it allows someone to make or modify lots of different components that save you some money over time. Its enjoyable and most of the stuff the average hot rodder will do is not that difficult. My son traded his diesel truck and got a gas powered one. The hitch on his new truck is 2" vs 2 1/2 inches for his diesel. He had an expensive heavy duty adjustable hitch he kept. Brought it over and we clamped it on the mill and now it fits his 2" receiver. Cost us nothing. Bought a $75 Pontiac Flywheel and machined it to fit a 500 Cadillac. Cost me nothing but a little time. I also have a new flywheel for the Cad........cost $400. Made and modified hundreds of things over the years......and my equipment is worth more than I originally paid for it.
I realize that not everyone can tie money up in a mill, but I see those Mill/Drill set ups all the time for less than a $1,000. Then you don't need a regular drill press and you can do a lot of small jobs. I think a lot comes from the feeling that you can create parts that you need when you need them.

 

A better idea than a rotary table for what you want to do is a small x-y table. Then just use trig to find the x-y coordinates from a rotary dimension. And you'll probably be able to use the x-y table more often than you'd use the rotary table.

 

Just lay em out and drill away. I have pics here somewhere of mine

 

Car flywheel, use the teeth for dividing. Bolt it down with a bushing in the center hole, swing the table to get hole circle dia.

 

Sounds like that’s the end result.

 

Another idea someone posted in the past somewhere.

 

Kato Kings on here used to CNC drill F-250 plates like this: