Building a Rotary Weld Table

[Music] [Music] you're never gonna be able to guess what I'm finally building today so don't even try a rotary welding positioner introducing right round and baby right round like a record baby rap I can't even tell you how long I've wanted one of these things I mean absolutely no legitimate reason to have one but why let that stop me now some people midlife crisis with fast fancy cars me rotary weld table I'm sorry what was that what are these used for what aren't they used for showboating Pulitzer prize-winning cinematography hypnotizing people decorating cakes not to mention pottery making barber poles candy canes and of course imprisoning your arch-nemesis you have been caught in a further act of delicious seasoned General Frank Howard for your continued and always entertaining transgressions in wood Matthias Wandel for cutting a drill Chuck Harbor caper using an angle grinder and it working Jimmy dressed the Internet just ain't big enough for both our fancy scarves the decision of the council will now be heard and in my case every year or two I might actually be able to weld something with this but in order to do that I'm going to have to build it first so you're looking at the core components I've collected for this turntable build I've got some of this broken down already but here on the right you're looking at a 24 volt DC gear head motor and on left to worm drive right angle gearboxes this is all used eBay stuff you can see the gearboxes have seen a lot more use than the motor but for what I need they should be fine they're not too clapped out the motor like I said is 24 volt DC it's got a 15 to 1 gear head built into it it came with the control bored to actually a 24-volt power supply and a speed controller it does I believe zero to 200 rpm and just here on the bench it feels quite Torquay I don't have a spec sheet for it but it feels like it's got quite a bit of torque I was actually looking for a treadmill motor and controller when I came across this thing this was a tad more expensive than gutting an old treadmill but it saves me the embarrassing conversation of explaining to my wife that I didn't really plan on starting a workout this has a through shaft design I don't really need this for what I'm using it for so this Shack will be the first thing to be modified in order to fit the other gearboxes the gearboxes are both 10 to 1 so 10 turns of the input shaft gets 1 turn on the output now technically I don't need a gear reduction with the motor that I have I'm really only using these as a design convenience using this saves me quite a bit of trouble and having to build you know some type of a socket to mount the faceplate on the bearings that those would be mounted to and trying to attach a transmission between that axis of rotation and the motor output that might make more sense as we're putting this together but using one of these should save me quite a bit of time now I bought 2 because I originally wanted to build the entire turntable into my bench itself like use the structure of my bench as the frame of the turntable but I've since had a change of heart and will only be using one what I had planned to do is use one of the holes in my bench top as sort of like a PTO a power take-off something I could just drop a 3 or 4 jaw Chuck or a face plate into and have it sort of at the ready whenever I needed it without it taking up additional space in my shop like a free-standing turntable would basically the thought was to bolt the motor and gearbox combination underneath the bench along with the controller and electronics kind of nice and tucked that out of the way that like I said would give me a top accessible socket to plug in the turntable or the Chuck but that obviously would only make it a horizontal turntable you know to go to vertical I thought I could build accessories for it and that's where the second gearbox came in I can plug the second gearbox down onto the top of the bench and then attach the same faceplate or motor to that turning it effectively into a vertical turntable I might have gotten those backwards now that would have resulted in a massive gear reduction ideally I'd use just sort of like a right angle devil gear but fortunately for TIG welding these things want to go slow so I don't think that would have been a problem so what I'd like to do is modify these components so I can attach the DC motor as close to and is compactly to the gearbox it actually might look something like this and then slip all of this inside a large piece of structural steel tubing I think if I keep the overall form factor square I can then flip the box over in any direction on my bench no clamp it down and maybe have a more versatile and easy to store turntable in order to do that I'm going to have to modify this shaft it doesn't currently fit and modify the gearbox flange attaching the DC motor directly to this and then screwing this back on to its gear drive my original thought was just to attach the motor directly to the new gearbox but this has the worm gear built into the shaft this would be a lot harder to modify than the reduced shaft on its gear head I was hoping to find sort of a key to arrangement where I could take this off and then attach it directly like I said I don't need the amount of gear reduction that this setup is going to give me because of the variable speed control but unfortunately it's one piece this thing is German and apparently those folks don't screw around all right so I have this blocked up more or less how I envisioned this going together I've got about a quarter of an inch between the smaller gear box in the larger gear box I could have probably went a little bit tighter but this should work out all right I'm roughly marking out kind of an envelope of the smaller gear box onto that flange so while I was over at the mill I took the opportunity to machine a couple of plates like mounting plates this is just I mean it's bigger than I need heavier than I need but unfortunately this all I had on hand I should be able to get two long welds up against the flange and then probably a short stitch up at the top here so I'm just going to do a couple of very quick tacks just keep everything in place then break it down and weld it up [Music] all right I think the flange turned out relatively all right I've got the seal back in there I just hope it fits back together just for a sanity check I've hooked up the electronics I'm going to turn it on make sure it doesn't sound weird and that it turns of course so through the two gearboxes that's as fast as it goes I can slow it down I can go to zero and then flip it the other way and uh sounds alright I've got a little bit of a week but all I think that turned out alright next up will be to go out and try to find a short piece of big structural tubing ideally you'd be like a 10 inch by 6 inch that I can slip this into and just make it a you know a nice compact piece of equipment just bear with me a minute while I go out and do that okay I couldn't find a tubing of the size that I wanted so some 3/16 plate and we'll weld one up myself it's about five millimeter and hopefully everything fits in here I think that should do it you'll see why it's little taller in a minute it'll be for the ground clamp on the other side it is a smidge longer than it probably needs to be but for now I think that'll work the next step is going to be trying to lay all these components out intelligently inside of the space I've given myself I've got the motor in the gearbox the power supply and the motor controller now once this is all closed up and welded the only access I'll have to the inside are two plastic end panels I plan to sort of countersink into what will be I guess at the top and the bottom or the two sides the only thing coming out the side panels will be the potentiometer for the speed control and the hookup to the power I've got one of these computer type case power connectors with a built-in power switch now the way I have the potentiometer wired on this control board the the center or the middle that wiper is sort of the reference voltage and what that allows me to do with this controller is rotate the motor in both directions based on the position of the potentiometer so the middle of that range is zero and the max in either direction is the max rpm for this particular combination now that's nice because it saves me having to add and wire a reversing switch but what it does in this case is it sort of cuts my resolution down zero to max rpm in either direction is now only half of this potentiometer range which is something less than three hundred degrees so what I did is turned to ebay and found one of these multi-turn potentiometers so this is a ten turn potentiometer and hopefully gives me a lot better resolution so now I have five turns in each two direction to control the motor speed and tune it down to sort of the linear distance per second I wanted to move for the particular size of part that will be welded on the mechanical side of things I mean I'm somewhat constrained by the fact that I have such a large offset but that was done you know sort of by design I want this offset so that when I flip the box up either for horizontal or vertical welding I have an offset off the top of my bench and potentially I could add you know larger turntables to the top a larger platen earlier when I mentioned that the worm drive was a design convenience what I was talking about is that using this gearbox saves me the entire mechanical build up of whatever this transmission would have looked like so had I not use this I would have probably had to put a couple of pillow block bearings or returned some seats to press some bearings into would have had a through shaft to mount the chuck or whatever to on the other side and then on that through shaft I would have needed a sprocket or a gear of some kind to be able to connect that motive force from that motor to the rotational axis here it's already sort of done forming this gearbox can already take the axial loads it has bushings or bearings or something in there and the mechanical connection obviously is already taken care of the two downsides to this is one I have additional gear reduction I didn't necessarily need though again for TIG welding my speed range here should be more than adequate might hit a limit if I tried to like MIG weld wire well that's obviously a lot faster but I don't really do a lot of that the other downside is that I now have a small spindle bore what I would like to have done is made this bore at least I don't know two two and a half inches and that way if any parts have sort of a tail it's it's just like the lathe if you want to sync parts into the chuck and into the spindle bore the larger the spindle bore the better here I'm not going to be able to do that I'll probably make this a hollow shaft just so I can get purged or back gas to a part if I need it but I won't be able to nest any of the work into the 3/4 of an inch spindle bore so I'm going to noodle this and you'll probably see all the rest of this happen in fast forward it's just going to be a bunch of layout and drawing holes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] all right no lie I'm pretty sure it took me longer to clean up my bench in order to get the shot than it did to get this far with the project now I know a lot of that happened quickly just a quick tour I've got the mounting features for the large gear box two blind square holes that'll be for clamping or fixturing the actual gear box itself to the bench there's a little step cutout in here that creates a recess for the ground clamp once the through shaft of the chuck comes through and keeps it below the surface so I can still flip the position around any way I like I don't know if this is the smartest way to do it but I'm going to run with it not attaching that shaft would have meant some kind of brushes or braided cables spring-loaded stuff and because I'm using the gear box I don't really have any access to that shaft other than here I guess I could have closed it done that on the inside and just had a provision to around to the case work itself and the inside was a little bit tricky but I think it worked out imagine this thing is closed and it's got to be assembled the motor and gearbox would come in from this end and bolt through the other side the power supply and speed control as a couple of brackets to mount it and sort of float it inside the steel structure Meaghan round to switch over to the control panel that I think is going to be on this face this is the one face I guess along with the bottom that the weld positioner will never sit on because of the truck I'll have another cap down the end that's what you see the small angle iron for and then the blind holes for clamping fit sort of in these empty spaces so here I'm doing somewhat of an aggressive like lay wire type of weld I want these beads to be a little bit proud so I have something to grind I'd like all these edges to be nice and smooth and rolled over so I don't want any really flat beads though they certainly do the job it's 332nd wire I think a little bit thicker would have been better and I'm pulsing with the foot pedal just with a small wire and a lay beat like that if the pulse starts to get away from me it gives me a chance to you know in that moment where you back off with the pedal to sort of force the wire in there a little bit faster and pick up the heat again and just repeat again I don't want to waste rod but I want to keep the bead a little bit tall here I'm just clamping down a little one-inch box-section service kind of a reference for me as I'm running along that weld I'm going to be doing this standing up no maybe with a hip up against the bench balancing on one foot because the other ones on the foot pedal and unfortunately TIG welding isn't really like riding a bike you don't get anywhere and you put on some pounds if you don't do it often you sort of lose the touch great in my shorter welds aren't that much better but these long ones I haven't done in a long time and that way L might help me you know from going off road even though in this case I've got that ground edge and I should be able to follow that line visually MIG welding would have likely been the smarter choice here I would have probably been done already to be honest but it's fun getting some time on the TIG torch I pulled out a couple of my grinders how often does a guy get to talk about it grinders now although 99.9% of the work was all done with the angle grinder I really like these little pneumatic belt grinders this happens to be a Dyna braid Dyna file - this one's actually pretty old it's probably going on about 15 20 years 15 maybe now probably 20 anyway you can't beat it for these sort of like square rectangular features now I pulled out my little die grinder a 90 degree this husky see it doesn't get much use down here because usually I can get it done with the angle grinder I usually use these mostly with carbide burrs the sanding pads are handy but to be honest I forget that I even have them now it may not seem like it but an angle grinder can potentially be like a precision tool once you get the hang of these things you can use them with a bit of finesse like you don't have to go in there all caveman style but with these rotary grinders and features like this the risk of undercutting is very real so as you're cleaning up this corner it's not that hard to end up with a couple of weird fluted corners that you know just don't look that great I mean it certainly doesn't matter for this thing but you know if you're doing something like fancy hand railings ornamental stuff and you're really trying to blend those welds in these little air files are spectacular I think you can get them with different radius noses anyway this is a much tension as this thing is going to get I'm just going to wipe it down and paint it we'll work on some other stuff while it's out drying now I know what you're thinking but no I didn't get it gold-plated but I did neglect to take all the dimensions I needed in order to make the shaft and the end panels I also forgot to add the holes for the little rubber feet and the holes for the handles so after a lot of soul-searching I made it yellow it's a nice calming quiet color that now is spray-painting outside it's kind of windy today thought I'd play it safe my neighbor's car is yellow so it's a little tighter than I expected in there there's a couple of screws I can't really get to I really don't want to drop these because it means a lot of that stuff's got to come back ass if you could see it back there I hardly have line of sight to I thought I would have had access from the other side but I had to put the board's in first all right I managed to get it on there but I can't get the box into the wrench off of a gearbox now all right so I had to resort to some good old-fashioned cussin that seemed to have done the trick all right that was a nightmare you okay sander you check now that I've got this thing all buttoned up I want to make sure it still works now in addition to the power switch I added an enable switch basically starts and stops the motion FYI ten turns on a potentiometer there's a lot of flip and turns so instead of trying to find that zero spot to stop the truck or the turntable I can just turn it off and start it here at the same speed anyway power on a power led maybe would have been nice and speaking of which this probably isn't the most intelligent panel layout but that's where I had the space on the inside for the backside of these controls alright let's build this button you all right so here's what I've come up with for platon I think you saw me make the shaft and cut the key that all drops in through the gearbox I didn't really have anything suitable for the top I grabbed an 8 inch aluminum round this was actually one of the pieces I had in my kind of bender collection like a bending die I just pressed it on the shaft and took a clean up cut I'm thinking I may keep an eye open for those woodworking Chuck's like a 3 or 4 jaw I'm pretty sure they're a lot thinner profile then the metalworking Chuck's are but for now I think I'll have some fun with this there's also a through-hole for a gas if I need it and the top for now I've threaded it so I can maybe clamp stuff in from the top the bottom just gets a snap ring there really aren't any forces trying to pull this thing out it's just there to keep it from walking on its own and then in theory the ground clamp fits right here that should clear my workbench won't go anywhere when I'm in the vertical position but this way I guess I ought to see if it if it kind of walks itself off the reason for clamping directly to the axis of rotation and not say like the chassis of the turntable or the bench it's to keep the welding current from going through the actual bearings and mechanical components so if you were to clamp to the body the weld current could go through potentially expensive bearings hit them seize them up generally wreak havoc this way hopefully it stays between the ground clamp and the arc through the axle through the shaft that's pretty cool it's almost hard to see moving all right that's almost two revolutions per second at its top speed that's 120 rpm and that's a pretty good clip I'll be honest I'm completely exhausted but can't help myself I want to try this thing out I got just whose mo was it from my scrap bin and for now just a piece cold rolled steel there's a weight a little too fast for me dang that was actually looking pretty good I should have kept going I think I'm going to need a footswitch for this [Music] all right I'm happy with that here I think it was still a bit too fast it looked good under the helmet but it looks a little too concave here so I have this old Chuck that have been keeping around you know just for this purpose I knew this was coming sooner or later in order to mount that I'd have to get rid of this aluminum plate I do have some flat plate stock you know a little bit larger but I don't think I'm going to get into that right now sooner or later it'll get attached like I said I just want to have some fun what I do have though is this a bob sized four jaw whatever it takes am i right this thing's less than three inches it came with some small rotary table I've never even used it it's still covered in earwax but I drilled a couple of holes I'm just going to screw this down Center it up and we some TIG rod on small tubing now if you imagine a normal-sized chuck and maybe some long work in here is obviously want to tip over it might not be long enough to necessitate like end support but it may be heavy and that's what these cutouts are for I can drop a clamp into the hole in the table just clamp it down either in this direction or if I need more space I can pick it up and clamp it in this direction here first thing I found was some stainless tubing it looks to be about two inches it's not super thin walls I don't know three 30 second or so I'm doing this without filler at five pulses per minute the speed wasn't perfect that's still something I'm going to have to figure out but it appears to have worked out next time I need the fusion weld to short stub pieces of tubing I think I'm ready I don't know all in all four first try I'm pretty happy with that just been leaning on random chunks of metal to get me in a comfortable position I had thought about early on about adding some type of a socket with maybe a big nut to call it or just a set screw be able to tighten a little half-inch around like a support arm something that when I didn't need it I could just kind of stow it in the chassis of the machine and should it have been helpful you could just sort of pull it out and plug it into one of two or three sockets give you some place to rest your hand but somewhere along the line I started see the light at the end of the tunnel and just figured I'd keep it basic [Music] I apologize didn't really get any ark shots I haven't seen any of the video yet so I don't know how visible any of that was but once you turn this thing on it's just you know there's no time to think it's go go go go this thing is really a lot of fun there is no something a little bit different about aluminum that I didn't detect with the stainless or the piece of steel before that the sort of another timing element going on I mean apart from the speed of the turntable there's some aspect that just feels like I'm not totally in control the way I might be when the part isn't moving I do not explain it like almost I'd want another foot pedal for the table speed but then that would screw with the consistent I don't know I guess I just have to get used to it have a look at this for example I started out here the part was cold it's all pretty much the same diameter so the rotational speed was the same the first bead was a little bit inconsistent let's call it just as I tried to keep up the heat with the foot pedal as it started to slowly warm up by the time I got to the second bead the part had gotten so hot that the B just sort of washed itself out I let that cool down a little bit and put these down pretty much one after the other you can see the second one looks a little bit better a little bit more consistent but there's kind of that you know the the temperature element that when you're working manually between your travel speed and the amp control I feel like I have a little bit more well basically control over where as this the part is moving at a constant rate and if you can't keep it within your foot pedal control now I don't know it still doesn't make sense these are my first tries I guess it's just a matter of getting used to it and this part forget about it was just a train wreck but personally I think the stainless part stole the show turned out gorgeous what do you say we end this on that positive you [Music]

Channel: This Old Tony

Views: 956,044

Rating: 4.945507 out of 5

Keywords: welding positioner, rotary welding positioner, rotary welding table, diy, home made, machining, metalworking, dc motor speed control

Id: ny5Xxwwpkxs

Length: 33min 0sec (1980 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 05 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/amosue]

my neighbour's car is yellow

Hahahaha, great vid. Interesting and amusing.

[u/john512777]

It plays a video of a guy tracing objects for a CNC machine.

[u/amaurer3210]

I was looking forward to seeing what brush/slip ring system he came up with for the return clamp, considering the rest of the system is so nice looking. The old "clamp it to the spinning shaft" technique was kinda disappointing.