anyone make a welding turntable ?

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Hi,I am looking at making a turntable to weld pipes. Thinking of using a 3 or 4 jaw lathe chuck with a rotisserie motor and potentiometer to adjust its speed.If you have built one, have you got any tips or hints. It going to me used mainly for intercooler piping but can also be adapted to weld anything round, eg water pipes, thermostat housings etc etcThanks,ArielMy weekend hobby -
Reply:They are called positioners and there is a thread going right now on this very same subject: Click here for thread.Visit Tensaiteki.com
Reply:tenaitecki, very nice work!, very good job, any closer to the floor and you would need to window the pipe! (not recomended) but been done before. if you weld in plant pipe, uphill welding this in my opinionshould be the way you should test. BUT in the IN THE POWER PLANT world, 6 G is what we're only required to do. NOW put that pipe close to the floor, and put the pipe axis on a 45 degree angle, this would be the way we at the powerhouse would do that, but in the 30 years i've been testing, the 6 Gis what we do, and the coupons, (the two 6" schedule 80), are ALLOWED to be moved to a comfortableheight ONE TIME ONLY per test. with that said, all in all, I would say it is'nt easy, but welding ISN"T easywhen YOU ARE expected to do your VERY best, 99.9% of the time. BTW,what you have there as a set up is spot on for what I might encounter in plant, lord knows were crawling, climbing, standing on my head, wedging down between two pipes side by side with 8"-10" between them, well you get the picture.good work on that coupon!mike.
Reply:Something that may stump some people is how to make a simple ground cable connection for a rotating positioner.  Take a look at the photo of the big blue positioner that David has.  http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=28148See the braided wire strap wrapped around the vertical shaft and connected to the work lead?  That is a tinned copper strap that is spring loaded to rub on the shaft as it rotates and provide the "ground" path.  This is a simple and very effective rotational ground system.  I've used this in high amperage pulsed MIG in auto plant production welding, it works just fine. Another stupid simple solution for the ground connection is to connect right to the workpiece or chuck, and pre-wrap the cable to unwind as you weld, ok system for a few revolutions.
Reply:Holy old thread! I've never heard them called turntables but then again I've never worked in a factory lol.Miller millermatic 251Miller aircrafter 330st, wp201961 Lincoln SA200Ellis 1600 bandsawLogan 820 latheSouth Bend 13"Bridgeport M Head
Reply:Well I hope you bring something more intelligent than what you've posted so far.Syncro 250 DX Dynasty 200 DXMM 251 w/30A SG XMT 304 w/714 Feeder & Optima PulserHH187Dialarc 250 AC/DCHypertherm PM 1250Smith, Harris, Victor O/ASmith and Thermco Gas MixersAccess to a full fab shop with CNC Plasma, Water Jet, etc.
Reply:My previous post was in response to a poster/comment that has since been deleted.We had a new poster who was attacking everything he saw about the forum.  Guess Zap didn't think much of him either.Syncro 250 DX Dynasty 200 DXMM 251 w/30A SG XMT 304 w/714 Feeder & Optima PulserHH187Dialarc 250 AC/DCHypertherm PM 1250Smith, Harris, Victor O/ASmith and Thermco Gas MixersAccess to a full fab shop with CNC Plasma, Water Jet, etc.
Reply:I built one a while ago, the biggest problem is finding a motor/reduction gearbox that will go dwon slow enough. Esp if you are going to be using it for TIGLinky to build thread
Reply:Hello Ariel, I have a picture of a position/rotator/turntable, whatever you wish to call it. I will see about attaching it on here. This particular one is probably a bit heavier than what you have described in your post but it's function and purpose is very similar. Amounts to using a shaft that might generally be mounted on bearings or bushings and then either be gear or sprocket driven by a gear reduction of some sort with the provision for controlling speed. The end of the shaft might either have a platen or chuck mounted to it to provide for attaching various parts that can benefit from being rotated to facilitate a welding process. Others made mention of grounding options, this is generally to provide for prevention of damage to the bearings or bushings when the welding current is passed from the machine base through to the part being welded, if handled incorrectly, damage to bearings or bushings could result. On the particular positioner that I have included a picture of, there are a set of brushes under the cover that make contact with a brass sleeve on the shaft, this in turn provides current to the driven shaft and avoids the bearings. These brushes came from a large engine driven welding machine. The drive motor for this particular unit is provided by a DC driven motor with the necessary AC input and controls to vary the speed. Hope this is somewhat understandable. Good luck on your project and best regards, Allan Attached Imagesaevald
Reply:Originally Posted by SundownIIIMy previous post was in response to a poster/comment that has since been deleted.We had a new poster who was attacking everything he saw about the forum.  Guess Zap didn't think much of him either.
Reply:SundownIII....  ....i saw this thread earlier and the post referred too as well as your comment to him then....but it looks funny now that its deleted....thanks ZAP!
Reply:Made this using an old mixer motor with variable speed.  helical cut gear and screw turned on lathe.  I made up housings for ball bearings on my little lathe.  By setting the worm at an angle it engages the helical cut gear on the turntable shaft.  Speed range is a bit limited. Attached Images
Reply:I cheated.Just bought a used Atlas positioner off flea-bay.Syncro 250 DX Dynasty 200 DXMM 251 w/30A SG XMT 304 w/714 Feeder & Optima PulserHH187Dialarc 250 AC/DCHypertherm PM 1250Smith, Harris, Victor O/ASmith and Thermco Gas MixersAccess to a full fab shop with CNC Plasma, Water Jet, etc.
Reply:car flywheel comes in a convenient 10-16 inch diameter, with a handy ring gear and an available matching gear to turn said flywheel off of a starter.  Grizzley sells some cheap rotarty tables in the 4" size range that could be repurposed pretty easily enough as well.miller syncrowave 250hobart handler 140home made 400 amp engine driven in progress...
Reply:Originally Posted by jdchmielcar flywheel comes in a convenient 10-16 inch diameter, with a handy ring gear and an available matching gear to turn said flywheel off of a starter.  Grizzley sells some cheap rotarty tables in the 4" size range that could be repurposed pretty easily enough as well.
Reply:they are manual rotary tables for indexing parts accurately when machining them. They are not powered. They have a small handle that has a large gear ratio to the table itself that you could power for rotation.  It might be like 720:1miller syncrowave 250hobart handler 140home made 400 amp engine driven in progress...
Reply:I've got some old toyota truck spindles lying out back, I was thinking they would be easy to adapt into a turntable...haven't got around to it yet thoughAs mentioned biggest prob is spinning it slow enough
Reply:yupp, slow spinning is the piece to solve, thats why I mentioned flywheels + the starter gear since this gives you around 10:1 reduction, varies depending on the car and starter. The one I was thinking of was like 167 :11.  If you use a typical ~100 RPM reduction gear motor you get down to 10 rpm right off the bat.. 6 seconds per rev, still a little high.. http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a.../Motors/1.htmlHere are some surplus gear drive motors that are AC or 12-24V DC.  IF you take a 100rpm 12v motor that runs good down to 3v, that should be about 25 rpm, getting us to 2.5 RPM.  If you use the indexer/position from grizzly as an option, like this 3" one: http://www.grizzly.com/products/3-Ro...w-Clamps/H619536:1 ratio, add a 25 rpm gear head and you are as slow as .7 rpm . like 90 seconds per revmiller syncrowave 250hobart handler 140home made 400 amp engine driven in progress...
Reply:I saw one in the local machine shop that used a mill table, feed motor,on their light duty one not exacty sure what they are called but here is a link http://www.ebay.com/itm/150-LBS-Y-TR...item4ce9cc1abdDo not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
Reply:Don't laugh (too much).This is obviously a potters wheel, but with a bit of imagination something like this could also be used to position a weld.Cheers,  Tony._________________________________Transmig 310 + Argoshield LightOxy acetyleneOxy propanePrehistoric stick welder_________________________________