Model Engineers’ Workshop – July 2019

10 http://www.model-engineer.co.uk Model Engineers’ Workshop

r4 9/16”

3/8”

1/8”

1/8”

Ø5/32”

1/2”

1 11/16” 1 1/16”

r5/32”

9/32”

4BA socket head

cap screws

but by the time I had fi nished bodging
something together I was sure I could come
up with a better idea. Not wishing to go
down the route of building a large rotary
table along the lines of the 7’’ one (which
would probably take a couple of months
with my current available workshop time)
I put the old grey matter into inventing
mode and came up with this idea. A hand
operated 11’’ rotary table.
Basically, it is car brake disc, 11’’ in
diameter. This one had been kicking about
the bench at work for some time and
was surplus to requirements so was duly
brought home to my bench. A quick glance
online shows they are available for under
£20.00 including the postage, they are
quite heavy, so take a trip down to your
local parts supplier or local garage where
they should be cheaper.
Anyway, lets get on with the
construction. I started on mine at around
10 AM and had it up and running and
machining parts by 3 PM.
I am not going to supply plans or
measurements as more oft en than not I
work with what I have in my ‘that’ll come in
handy one day box’. Also, it doesn’t bother
me using and mixing imperial and metric
material. The table was also designed to
fi t my X3 milling machine which uses M
studs in 12mm slots. Smaller machines like
the X1 and X2 use M 6 studs in 8mm slots so
build to whatever your machine will take.
The basic parts consist of

1. A brake disc


2. A bit of 10mm thick steel plate


3. A piece of 6 mm steel plate


4. Some 1/4” thick brass plate


5. An offcut of angle iron

3 4

5 6

Cutting out the smoke box front plate The chamfer in the centre of the brake disc

Turn and centre drill a scrap of aluminium Centring in the mill

6. A length of steel bar

7. A block of aluminium


8. A bit of 20mm thick MDF


9. Various nuts, bolts, screws and washers

Brake discs are exceptionally well

machined, obviously they have to be, or

all sorts of braking problems will occur.

If there is the slightest run out problems

Fig.