Sieg X2 Mini-Mill (aka Harbor Freight 44991, Grizzly G8689, Micro-Mark 82573, Homier 3947, Cummins 7877)! Harbor Freight 8x12 and Sieg X2 Mini Mill, DRO, CNC Conversion Plans, Machining/Metalworking How-tos and Resources

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SIEG X2 MINI MILL

HOW-TO Set Up A Rotary Table

rotary tables are useful if you don't have a lathe. it's great for a bunch of operations. the first question is always "how do i setup the table and center it?"

we'll just go over a simple way to center it.
first we chuck a wiggler and use either the round ball or disc. in this case, the ball is preferred.	click to see video
start with one side of the hole. it doesn't have to be aligned in any direction. get the wiggler to be centered. it's REALLY easy with a DRO. set the DRO to 0 in your desired direction. in this case it's the X.
start cranking the handle until you get to the other side. again, get the wiggler to center. note the readout position. it's .422"
crank the handle halfway back towards 0. in this case it's 0.422 / 2 = 0.211. this is our center!
ok, how did we do? since our table has a MT2 taper in the center, we chuck one in there and with a pointed wiggler tip that's been centered, check how we did. apparently not so well.
we were off 0.008" in the X and 0.002" in the Y. using the wiggler takes patience. with the wiggler on center, our method should have given us 0,0. (we were trying to go quickly here). not bad for quick eyeballing.
here is a lighted edge finder. you can use this instead of a wiggler. same principles apply. click here to see the edge finder taken apart.
want to see the rotary table in action? we're making a leadscrew nut.	click to see video

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