Turntable use ... i dont get it :(

[Imageraj]

I am a newbie and struggling with centering turntable and vise under the scope. When I use the vise with a turntable, do I have to lock the vise and do all the spinning with turntable? Thanks

 

[Sam]

I am a newbie and struggling with centering turntable and vise under the scope. When I use the vise with a turntable, do I have to lock the vise and do all the spinning with turntable? Thanks

Yes, having the crown of the vise rotating defeats the purpose of the turntable. GRS has a YouTube video on turntable setup.

 

[Imageraj]

Thanks

 

[Roger Bleile]

Is it possible to effectively use a scope without a turntable? If so how?

 

[T.G.III]

I started out using just the vise, readjusting the piece within the jaws as needed supplemented with scooching the vise around, upgraded to a tray filled with BB's as a viable option. all of this information was gleaned from the forum.

 

[Leland Davis]

Roger, it is possible I made my vise years ago from a ball from a gold shot mill. In my impatience to start using it I never put in the centering for the jaws just slide the jaws to where the part is centered in the scope and tighten jaw screw. The jaws lock into the dovetails and hold piece centered. One time impatience paid off.

 

[Roger Bleile]

Roger, it is possible I made my vise years ago from a ball from a gold shot mill. In my impatience to start using it I never put in the centering for the jaws just slide the jaws to where the part is centered in the scope and tighten jaw screw. The jaws lock into the dovetails and hold piece centered. One time impatience paid off.

I do the trick by sliding the jaws side to side. I have a Leica scope and the field of view is very good. I just don't have a turntable and never learned to use one.

 

[dcurrie911]

When you say Sliding the jaws I picture moving the piece so that other features are brought into the field of view. But when you are cutting a scroll backbone I assume that you are in some way Rotating the vise, no?

 

[Leland Davis]

Dan, yes for scrolls just center the 1 your working on and rotate the vise to cut.

 

[dcurrie911]

how do you rotate the vise without a turntable? My vise sits in a donut which allows me to tilt my work which in turn sits on a turntable for rotation.

 

[JMiller]

how do you rotate the vise without a turntable? My vise sits in a donut which allows me to tilt my work which in turn sits on a turntable for rotation.

Dan does the top half of your vise not rotate?

 

[dcurrie911]

ahhhh, nope. The top half does not rotate. I checked the Lindsey site and indeed my vise is intended to work with a turntable. Then I see other vises that the top half rotates. Seems like kind of an integrated turntable.

 

[JMiller]

Yep, then you need the turntable for sure. I've never used a turntable, just the vise. It has a screw on the side to set drag, rotate freely or lock down.

 

[Roger Bleile]

When I wrote "sliding the jaws" I meant that the centering yoke has been removed from my vise so that I can slide the jaws side to side to get the area I'm working on in the center of rotation. If I was working on something like that buttplate in the picture above, I could slide the block of wood to center in one direction then slide the jaws in the other direction to have the work totally centered. In that way a turntable is unnecessary. The problem comes when I am working on something irregularly shaped like the frame of a revolver. In that case it is a struggle to work with a scope without a turntable.

Here is a picture of one of my guns in the vise. You can see that I can slide the jaws up and down but can't center left and right. It didn't matter in this case because I was using an Optivisor rather than a scope. Just the same it is better to have scrolls in the center of rotation than eccentric. Over the years, I just learned to deal with it like all of the old pre-scope engravers but because of my eyesight I am trying to adjust to scope use for scrolls rather than only on figures and scenes.

 

[dcurrie911]

Hi Roger. Perhaps there are advantages to turntables. I mounted a Lindsey graver sharpener template on my vise for something irregular and then pretended I needed to engrave the Metal fixture. The vise is clearly off center to the turntable but as I rotate the table the center of the metal graver holder stays directly centered to the scope above.

 

[Imageraj]

I use a turntable and vise - level everything first and center the turntable using a dowel about the same height as my workpiece mounted on a vise. Once leveled, the vise is locked and turntable is used for rotation. Took me some time to figure out the set up and it seems to work.

 

[Roger Bleile]

I use a turntable and vise - level everything first and center the turntable using a dowel about the same height as my workpiece mounted on a vise. Once leveled, the vise is locked and turntable is used for rotation. Took me some time to figure out the set up and it seems to work.

That works great as long as you are working on flat plates or something like a knife bolster but gun engraving is not that simple. Look at the picture below and tell me how you would clamp that up in your vise and keep the workpiece in focus as you work. Keep in mind that the front of the frame, triggerguard and the grips behind them are all one piece and there are projecting "ears" on the sides of the frame. The cylinder would be removed while working however.

 

[Imageraj]

That’s great challenge- I also want to find out how to hold/center dimensional objects.

 

[dcurrie911]

Hi Roger. Obviously a turntable with it’s associate vise will not solve the problems presented in engraving the bottom of the revolver frame. I hope that I didn’t imply that it would.

For discussion though I think that an optivisor may work better than a scope given the significant changes in depth of field. For my cheap scope I don’t think even one scroll backbone would be in focus from top to bottom. For clamping, in addition to removing the cylinder I would also remove the barrel, cylinder pin, and grips (I assume when you said the grips were integral you meant the grip frame). When I finished stripping to the frame I would use GRS Thermo loc to work around the protruding ears and allow the frame to be clamped trigger guard up.

BUT then, and this is the most important point,,, I would hire an engraver far better than me to do the actual engraving. Cutting on that multidimensional plane would be insanely difficult. You did a fantastic job!

Dan

 

[Cadows]

Wow.... I wanted to dive into this craft but now after ive read just one segment of it here in this thread I think i’d need one lifetime to understand everything