I'm the same as Andrew and generally just have the one item on the table. On the odd occasion when I just want to quickly use the 5C spin indexer I may leave the vice in place but it can get in the way of inserting the work.

Mine is not as long as his

Hi Derek, I'm the same, normally only have one thing on the table. My Major mill is about 60% the length of Andrew's one and by the time I get anything on my mini mill, there is absolutely no room for anything else.

Regards Nick.

Just one 99% of the time. I have Bridgeport sized machine and the 6" Bison vice is rather large and fitted in centre of table. I had a job the other week which required the large 10" rotary table. Left the vice on, centered the rotary table under quill and mounted the job. Only to find about 10mm short on X axis movement. Removed every thing, took vice of and put RT in middle of table. Because of the weight of the vice, rotary table and Bison indexer I would rather have them in middle of table than overhanging the knee and risk flexing the table.

Colin

Not forgetting the risk of chomping the one not in use when moving the table to clear the cutter from the work in progress to measure it.

Not a rotary table and a vise but I do have space to mount my George Thomas versatile Dividing head at the end of the table for quick use without removing the milling vise. It has a Tee slot adaptor plate/raising block which keys it to the Tee slots and is quick to mount and demount. Great for swift cross drilling or milling squares without removing the work from the chuck and then back to the lathe.

regards Martin

My SX2P doesn't have the largest of tables so I only mount one item on the table and my vice lives on the table most of the time. Mounting both the vice and rotary table at the same time would put them both at the ends of the table which depending on the job could mean running out of travel in one direction.

If your vise is no bigger than 4", 100mm, then it is not so heavy to move and it can be removed in seconds. A 6" rotary table with a chuck on it is getting close to my limits, but does get in the way if left on the mill, and I am one of the lucky people to be able to choose which of the two mills sitting side by side at the museum to use for a particular job. Today I wanted to square off a 3 inch wide workpiece using the Y axis, and the Tom Senior was not up to it even trying different table slot positions for the 100mm Bison vise. I just moved to the drill mill and the job was easy. With hindsight, I could have removed the key from the vise and mounted it lengthways on the TS bed.

Edited By old mart on 26/08/2021 20:52:22

The supplied keys on my ARC one set it to within 0.001" in 5 seconds rather than 5mins. The K4 does not have keys but less than 60 secs of tapping until the dti runs true is what it usually takes me, less if I use the power feed rather than hand winding..