KITTS Rotary Table

[Tim Clarke]

Has anyone ordered the 8" H/V rotary table
offered by Kitts Ind. Tools? See on page 30 of sept/oct HSM. At 169.00 plus 3 bucks freight, the price is right. Quality? Service? Satisfied?

TIA, Tim in Oregon

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[MichaelC]

I recently ordered and recieved the 8" rotary table that Kitts sells for $149. Absolute rubbish, made in India. Thankfully it was dead on arrival and Kitts took it back for a full refund for purchase price and return shipping.

This past week I bought a Vertex and am very happy, nice machine for just a little more money.

Michael also in Oregon

[Thrud]

I have a 6" Vertex and it is a damn good unit. If you order a Vertex, they do not come with a tailstock or dividing attachment so if you need those order them at the same time and insist on a package deal.

[lynnl]

Where's the origin of the Vertex? Are they Asian? Most of the catalogs I see list the Phase II, and other 'no name' models, but I don't recall seeing a Vertex advertised. Tho I've seen the name before. Who sells them?
Speaking of Phase II, does anyone have an opinion to offer on the quality of those?

[MichaelC]

Vertex is made in Tiawan. You can buy them from Penn Tool Company, or frequently on ebay for a little less. I have not used my new one yet but it operates very smoothly, and has good finish, unlike the POS one I got from Kitts, made in India.

Michael

[wierdscience]

I have a 8"kitts rotary table,I use it for a welding positioner-any questions?And that was after I made the thing work,anything made in India is s---!Plain and simple.

[Thrud]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by wierdscience:
...anything made in India is s---!Plain and simple.</font>

This is neither correct nor fair. I have surgical instruments that are made in India that are as good or better than American made units at 1/3 the price. As in all things, you pay for what you get.

Caveat emptor.

I also know some East Indian ladies that are hot, hot, hot. So there you go.

[wierdscience]

Okay,Thrud,maybe not everything,but 99% is.We got some power hacksaw blades from India,softer than the brass we were cutting,also some bearings we sent back becuase the "new" ones were worse than the old we took out.
I think the cast structure remains for the most part even though they say it is gone,of the countries we have seen export product,India has had little improvement in the last 10 years,far and wide left behind by Taiwan and China.The upper crust likes to see their kids go into computers and medical,not mfg.Same as it is here in many respects,everyone wants to see their kid in a lab coat or a three piece.

Now for the fun,out of sheer curiosity(and because work was slow)I took my 8"Kitts apart to see the sights,wooooo...scary bad machine work!The guys who made this didn't have set screws to use so they hacked off screws and sloted them with a hacksaw(same one)They had two spanner nuts holding the worm shaft in place and adjusting the lash out of it,no thrust bearings and the two nuts were not keyed to the shaft with a tab washer,so when you crank it one way they loosen up,and the other they get tight as hell.The machining on the base casting is poor at best,not a ground surface in sight anywhere,parallel is off by .009"over 8",the worm screw has chatter marks from end to end.The casting all in all where as good as India can produce,although they did not clean with a bead blast or scaler prior to filling with oil(I geuss they figured that eventually it would lap the gears in)the table does run true with the center,but the mt#3 taper does not(tir=.010"poor)oddly enough the grads around the table is acurate as any I have seen.

Bottom line,unless you intend to hang and old b-port table feed on it and use it for welding-don't buy one from Kitts.
Get your self a Vertex,made in Taiwan and at least as good as anything used on ebay,even better would be a Bison made in Poland high quality units but more money.Spend money on a good one,it'll last you a life time.

[Thrud]

Ws

I would love to have a Meca table. Almost bought a used 6" from England until I figured what it would cost to ship it here...

Nikken has the best manual table I have used for large heavy loads - you can turn a 600Lb. part on a 12" table with your pinky. They start about $20,000.

[wierdscience]

Yes,I too suffer from this same condition-champaign dreams and beer finances
How about a Moore precision rotary table,I hear they are pretty nice?
Oh,I know,get one of those 60"monsters off ebay and just spin the whole machine!