Rotary Positioner Table

Another very useful tool was added to our workshop with the structure that we made this time. It is a ‘positioner table’ that can be useful for a great range of areas related to the making of structures. The role of the particular table is to spin a metallic plate on the right and on the left according to which way the stepper is pressed.

This table is able to spin the metallic plate from 0 degrees- 100 degrees with spinning speed already regulated. It may sound quite simple and not useful at all but imagine to manage stable welding while the piece is spinning in gradual speed. I can ensure you that the welding will be easier implemented automatically and much more uniformly. Equally easy would be if we put a router in a stable place while spinning a piece of wood, then we would immediately get a trimmed wooden perfect-shaped circle. Additionally, it would be also easy if we had the plasma cutter still while spinning the metallic plate. These are only some of the multiple utilities of the particular table as using your imagination, its functions are countless.

Everything started when a friend gave us a gearbox that is capable of making the 10 spins in just a single one. Then, we found a dc motor from an old fitness machine and we connected it with the gear box. Therefore, the motor with the use of a speed controller could be spinned with 0-3000 spins so when it was connected with the gearbox, it was exited with 0-300 spins. From the gear box, we managed to make an axis of 65cm on which the metallic plate was applied and it is also the surface of our project. This axis is also supported by another two bearings in order to achieve even higher endurance. As the already mentioned pieces were connected, they were placed on an axis with 40mm thickness that has the potential to spin all the pieces made from 0 degrees to 100 degrees. Using a crank and a shaft that is covered with screw threads, (the screw threads begin from the one side of the shaft reaching the other side), we made a system that when the crank is spinned, the whole system spins as well as a result we get the inclination that we need to work on. All these are moving on a metallic base that was made of square tubes with dimensions of 50mm x 50mm x 2mm. On this metallic base, we also placed a mechanism which is role is when the position is chosen and it is the proper one to work and bolt the screw, the table is stabilized completely and securely.

One of the advantages of our own design of table is that when it is positioned in a horizontal place at the 0 degrees, two surfaces are appeared that you can work on both, one at the front side and one at the back side of the table. In particular, at the back side you may have a chuck and be able to put smaller objects while at the front side, where the surface is bigger to work, you can place bigger in size objects.

The motor that was placed to move the table left and right, uses two contactors that are activated by pressing the two steppers. The steppers are made of aluminum sheet metal while their covers are made of plain sheet metal. Additionally, above the steppers, there is a board where the switches are placed. One of the two switches is there for an emergency in case a problem is arisen and it can be pressed to deactivate any function in progress. While the other is to activate the whole mechanism and the potentiometer placed next to it, regulates the spinning speed of the metallic surface of work. Regarding future uses of the structure, various bases where made that many supporting tools and machines can be placed multiplying the potential uses of our structure. Concluding, in this way we managed to implement another project of the make it extreme team with a great success. Therefore, our workshop is one step ahead being more fulfilled.

We believe that the particular structure was worth our time and efforts not only for the satisfaction gained during making it but also for the great usefulness of the particular tool.