Should go without saying #notsponsored and I cant imagine they'd want to after this video. Cheers

My reply from 5 hours ago has gone? OK, rinse and repeat: It turns out that the construction of this particular device leaves a lot to be desired, which reminds me of my old crappy rotary table. But, you can fix it I think. Unscrew the hex bolt from the bottom of the table spindle, and put a longer old bolt in there, so that you can tap or push the table out of the bearing. You will see that only the bottom has a bearing, and the top of the table has none. I have changed this lousy construction by turning a recess in the housing about 2mm deep, into which the underside of the table fits accurately. The housing just fitted in my 4 jaw chuck. I also removed a few tenths of a mm from the bottom of the table, now it runs true. The axis of the table has been shortened slightly (2 mm and a bit), so that the table can sink 2 mm into the recess. I tightened the hex bolt until the underside of the table nearly touches the bottom of the recess. The table is now also supported at the top by the recess, which improves the rigidity enormously and now it turns much more accurately.

Hats off for the non-click-baity title 👍

Maybe you already caught it but at the end when you were facing the top of your part in the 3 jar chuck it tweaked over some in the chuck. You can see the gap between the chuck face and the part and it's still there when you have it tilted. That kind of stuff just frustrates when so much time is involved. Great job and thanks for all of the content!

I about spit out my coffee when I saw the effects of that locking screw, that is absurd, and such an easy manufacturing and design fix.

I worked 40 years as a toolmaker and design engineer at Ford UK Product Development, and I loved the rotary table we had in our workshop. For many years, we had no hoist, and the dividing head was too heavy to be easily moved by one person. But most of all, the rotary table is so simple and quick to use if you just needed half a dozen indexed holes that you could click into the marked indents. It looked like you were using a multitoothed rose bit to cut the chamfer. My experience is they try their very hardest to chatter and leave a poor surface finish. I use Chinese cheep-as-chips single edged countersinks in my home shop and at the Menz Shed, and so long as you keep the speed down they do a lovely job and last for ages. I have even seen Kurtis from Cutting Edge Engineering Australia use one to machine wide chamfers on parts, although he would be using high quality, and expensive, tooling. This is the first of your videos I have watched, and I'll be subscribing for sure.

Thank you for the video and detailed information given. Especially about locking the rotating top plate.

I've been using a rotary table for years but just bought a dividing head for cutting axle splines and excited to use it for the first time today!

Thank for the video, as always you provided great content. You're competency seems to be well beyond the level of machines and budget you're working with. Watching and learning you techniques as you "bootstrap" with cheep "Chinese quality" machines and tools into a capable shop is really helpful. I also bought a rotary index, thinking I could use it as a rotary table. But my machine is also limited in it's Z. Great advice, I'm sorry the rotary table won't likely have much future use. I'll look now to see if you have a Patron site I can join and help offset your cost, you certainly saved me from wasting money on one of these tilting rotary tables. Thanks again.

Gotta love a video with a title like that! I’m in for the ride 🙂

I bought the same one a few months ago. It's Awesome after a few little mods and about 6-7hrs of Black Dog-inspiring work. I had to fully dismantle to clean out all the swarf from manufacturing. The operation was rough as guts! Add a Brass 'Race' between the Face Plate/Body. Debur and re-Index the Worm Gear before it sheared the teeth off its mate, which was also re-indexed. Added a sealed bearing to either side of the Hand Wheel. I would also Slot one of the Mounting Holes, as the unit won't sit parallel to your Table. Add a Spring under that cute lil Table Lock Bolt before it vibrates out and shoots your neighbor. Nipping this Bolt up to drag helps reduce Harmonics. However, you can get the s**Ts, coupled with an optimum RPM for the Spindle around 3000+ to take advantage of the Chatter. The table practically revolves itself!

I would agree with the comments made below re the Vertex brand. I have always had great success with their products. Old saying - "The sweetness of quality is remembered long after the pain of price is forgotten". Good luck mate!

Hey thanks for all the great videos- I bought my mill after seeing you using the Seig. Anyway I recently purchased the exact same RT. After watching the vid I rushed out to the workshop to check mine as I didn't notice anything bad about mine when I used it. The lock on mine moves the plate about .10mm, and the hand wheel shows about 2 seconds(?) of backlash. The plate revolves nice and smooth and no binding whatsoever. Im really happy with it. I know you probably didn't have time but they would have swapped it out for a better one which you could check on the spot. Cheers!

Hello Artisan, I have been following your channel very closely for some time now and have been inspired to come up with interesting solutions when implementing my own projects. Since owning my own milling machine, which is now three and a half years, I am aware that all this is not a low budget hobby. I find it very positive that you also present and test inexpensive tools and show possibilities for modification. To be able to realize my own projects I had to buy various accessories for my milling machine over the last years. Sometimes it es also in Germany quite difficult to find products in the right cost range. My general experience is not to save money on equipment even if you have a small budget. With a dividing head in this price range, I don't think you can expect the quality reserves that you need for long-term precise work. This video shows this very clearly. Given the variety of products, it has become very difficult to find sufficiently good and precise quality for an acceptable price. If in doubt, I think it is better to spend a little more and buy a product that is stable, precise and reliable. With good tools, work is simply more enjoyable and better results are achieved. Thank you for the honest product presentation. Please keep up the good work. With kind Regards form my Workshop in Germany

We use worm gears a lot in astronomy, many times performance can be drastically improved by lapping the gears. Also setting backlash settings too tight will cause binding especially if worm gear or the ring gear are not concentric

Nice job fixing that locking mechanism. That backing plate machined beautifully.

Was shopping these and you saved me troubles, thanks

Only a few seconds in and already I'm impressed. That looked like a Rolson penknife....and he managed to cut something with the blade!

Thanks 4 the video and ur recommendation is appreciated

I have the same set up with the same issues. I’ll be making a lock like yours now. Great video

Love your videos. Every once in a while, you might want to do a video on some of what you actually make. We'd love to see what you do when you aren't machining the machines that you use to machine what you actually make.

I bought a non tilting rotary table from Qtech tools who claim to be an Australian company for $150. Wish i had saved my money because it is a piece of crap! it looks good on the outside and that's about it. i mounted a piece of mild steel to open up a curved slot (cutter diameter was less than the slot) with a light cut the end mill grabbed and spun the table (10/15mm) and painted a racing stripe in my jocks. Nun the less i finished with a hand file and wont use it again until i strip it down and assess the issues. Qtech had very poor customer service, I won't buy from them again!! Great video keep up the good work. Ps. i haven't forgotten that gearbox casting you did a while back.

Once more this makes just one thing clear: no matter what you buy and from which brand you buy: it is about the expected QC, not so much about where the factory is located.

I have the same table. (different brand but same table) I ran into all the same problems but there's solutions, as you have illustrated. I just put brass inserts into my stops or locks as I was afraid the stock hardware would gouge the surfaces, making it that much more difficult to get accuracy & precision over time. I also adjusted the pointer on the tilt but you should always indicate with something better if you need accuracy. It's not terrible but I think I got it for 75 or 80 bucks about five years ago so I'm not nearly as disappointed.

I wanted to make a backplate for my rotary table. I liked your idea of bolting the backplate to rotary table for machining OD. I have a 6" India make table that I got for about $150. It has 72:1 ratio and comes with indexing plates. It also has the clamps that you had to make. Overall I think it is a good product for that price.

I have the Vevor 100mm version (AU$118) , it looks almost identical casting wise , but def has holes in different places and other minor changes .

I bought basically the same from amazon here in the US (about 120 USD), and ran into the exact same issues. Still need to tear it down and modify/rebuild it, but i got it planning on having to basically treat it as a raw casting kit.

I feel your pain. I bought one of the cheap ones, which had all the same problems...plus one more: the mounting holes were misaligned. A line marked through the centres of the holes wasn't perpendicular to the tilt axis, which meant that I couldn't set it up with the tilt axis aligned with mill's y-axis. I mostly cut plastics (and some aluminium) on my micro-mill using high speed steel tooling...which wouldn't cut the cast base. I ended up spending an hour making cast iron dust with a die grinder in order to get things aligned ☹️

I still really like the look of the scraped base of your vise. No one else I've seen has that

I have a version from RDG in the UK; looks identical. The T slots are not even on centre or 90° to each other on mine. Absolute garbage. Had the same issue with the lock screw too.

Gday, frustrating when this happens, I brought the 8” vertex RT and super happy, mate of mine brought the 6” vertex and can’t fault that either, Taiwanese made is the way to go I think mate, cheers

I always seem to run into having tooling not quite big enough for the next project. I bought an 8" Vertex H/V rotary table. It seems quite OK except it only has 3 T slots. By the time I get a part clamped in place, the useful area is down to around 6". I cast an 11" disc of aluminum and mounted it to the RT. With 8 T slots it makes the table much more useful. I have an 8" chuck that thru bolts to the RT but makes it too heavy for my old body to move as one piece. I have the set of indexing plates and footstock but rarely use them.

I too looked at a similar tilting table but decided I didnt really need the tilt, quite pleased I did now. I ended up with a fixed rotary table with indexing plates which is OK but also needed stripping like most Chinese stuff. I have to say I have found those San Du chucks pretty good after cleaning

These cheap rotary tables actually have their uses , you can use them to make precision (sort of) specialty fixtures you want to leave set up permanently! As someone that has spent thousands of dollars on rotary tables I can say it’s a lot easier to handle not having access to a cheap one rather then that really expensive RT you trust with tight tolerance work!

I would look for a rotary table with a center taper. It will have much larger bearings to fit the taper, plus the taper is super useful.

I have a three inch non angling version of this yable - I bought it to be used a work-piece rotator - and I am quite happy with it. I am going to mate a small Jaycar motor gearbox to it with a 2.1 to 1 toothed belt drive, enclosed on plastic boxes to keep out rubbish and drive it with my variable PSU. It should be good!

I did modify a 100mm chuck by drilling 6.5mm through-holes from the face to the back and adding recesses to the face for socket head screws. I am using 1/4-20 bolts, but M6 is fine as well. my t-nuts are 3/8-16 threaded, but I have tons of reducer bushings from the photo/video business, so the bolts thread easily into the t-nuts. this allows me to mount the chuck straight onto the mill table without using strap clamps, as well as straight to my rotary table... no backplates necessary.

Thanks for the review. I had been considering getting one of these off and on for a few years and now I have a lot more info, sadly to the negative.

Hi mate. If you are going to buy the six inch from H&F, get the one with dividing plates as it has four T slots ratherthan three. I had a three slot one a few years ago and it was rotten for trying to hold stuff to it. I enjoy your vids, thanks for making them.

Nice work, mine is a 4" Soba and it has a similar clamping arrangement. You may be able to make a stepped plug that goes into the mounting plate and the spindle to center it? An old machinist warned me against getting the 6" because of the weight. When I get a 4 "chuck on mine it is quite heavy if I have to reach to put it on the mill. The older you get the heavier they get! I can use the micrometer on it effectively if I do not want to set up the dividing plates.

Yea i bought a cheap small 3" one of Amazon and it's really cheaply made. But it's not the tilting variety. I did buy one of those also previously but those are even worse as nothing is square and accuracy is way off. That's also the case for the fixed one but to a lesser degree but still far from being anywhere close to a precision tool. It does work OK for my purposes since my machining is done strictly as a hobby but I'm still going to invest in a higher quality one at some point. I've just been procrastinating that for a while since I don't end up needing to use the rotary table that often, but when I do it's frustrating sometimes. Although the rotary plate on it is quite flat, within less than a thou over all sides. After disassembling, cleaning, deburring sharp edges and putting new grease it operated much smoother. The only issue is that there is a bit of lift when machining, that's what makes it frustrating and the other frustrating part I've found is that the chucks I've bought for it are nowhere near accurate enough, so these issues compound on one another. Altogether i can still make ok parts on them but they are quite a bit off from the accuracy i'd like even just for hobby work.

It would be pretty interesting if you took a hard look at it and made mods and repairs necessary to make this one the rotary table of your dreams.

Hmmm ... I bought a 75mm rotary table - an RT-1 - for a job in a fctory where I was making up cable loomsand I gotsick of being "screwdrivered"; I made up some plates whuch I mounted to the RT and I fitted M12 sensor sockets and ecomate connectors to take the plugs - no more screwwsdriver injuries! I have since moved onfrom the factory job and I am now in the process of making a rotary welding table using hobby gearhead motrord and a toothed belt to drive the RT; my variable PSU is my variable speed drive - its only a few hundred mA. I found the backlash a little worrying, but its new job, this won't be a problem. I'll be using it mainly for small pipe welding jobs.

Très bon travail ! Bravo . 👍👍👍

I have a Vertex 8" HV rotary table & indexing plates that seem decent. I can take the back plate off my 8" chuck & face mount to the RT. The combination is so heavy that I can't handle it so have to take it apart to move. I have a BS-1 semi-universal indexing head with a cheap 6" chuck. Again the combination is pretty heavy for me to handle together. It is also quite tall when used vertically. By the time a drill chuck & bits or especially a reamer is mounted there is little or no room left for work. And I've got a 9x49 knee mill! I thought when I got the RT that I could cut everything I wanted including all the gear spacings and radius work. Turns out the Indexing head is better for gears & the RT for many other things. I ended up casting an 11" aluminum plate & 8 T slots for the RT because of the needed room to clamp parts. I bought foot stocks for both but have rarely used the one for the RT. The rabbit hole is deep! I've made indexing blocks for the bottom of all the things that fit on the mill table, so setup times are less. I made wooden trays with a slot for the blocks to drop into. I'm slow at setups! Hope some of this helps others.

Interesting. I have just come across your video which has exactly the same issues I had. I bought the same size rotary table but without the tilt function and it too wobbled in exactly the same way. I did not want to spend ages re-machining surfaces so the underside of the top part fitted flush with the nicely ground surface. I checked and the table was nice and concentric and after a lot of thought decided to fit 4 M5 brass grub screws with flat tops inserted through from the top held in place with thread lock. I could then adjust the wobble until there was none but at the same time there was not too much drag. I too had problems with the poor fit of the worm against the gear but in my case there was no way to adjust it. The inside of mine was filled with grinding dust and it needed a good clean. It is a shame that someone went almost all the way to make a reasonable tool but tried too hard to do it cheaply. Mine is workable but disappointing. Not aware that there is an alternative in the 100mm size. John

Got the same one different name (Canada) was all but useless out of the box. Tear down, CLEAN, lube. useable but did not expect a lot for the price and needed it for ONE job at the time and with a little finess did the job great

Years ago I got the cheaper version of this. Calling it hot garbage would be a kindness. Yours is in much better shape than the junk I ended up with. I didn't return it because I didn't use it until after time ran out. I now use a Sherline rotary table. It's not perfect, but it is very usable and gets the job done. The only issue I have is the locking mechanism is fiddly and could be improved, but accuracy is top notch.

I have similar 100mm tilting rotary table which came with 100mm three jaw chuck fitted. It has a similar rotating table lift on the body problem not when clamping but when rotary milling, so what I have in mind is to dismantle it and see what has been used for the rotating bearings. My guess is two close coupled sealed ball races. I which case that would explain the lift on actuating the radial clamp. Current thought would be to re engineer it and fit it with two tapered roller bearings with slight pre load. Another thought would be convert it to a precision plain bearing which should handle radial loads better than rolling element bearings.

yup I bought rotary table and dividing head from China while ago. It is kinda interesting as almost everything seemed to match its spec, but not working well at all. I then realized that once you received it, you have take it apart, wash it, clean it, lube it, and assemble it in correct way, then you can make it work well.

Thanks for talking the bullet for us

I wonder if you could drill and tap more holes to lock it in place, equal pressure in the locks might help, sort of like how you have to adjust the jaws on the lathe i dont know?

Great Ep, of This Old Aussie! or, Bob's yer auntie! But not the Canadian version the Aussie version aahhhrrr I have gone cross-eyed! I made the mistake of buying the sqaure one of those and it's junk you still have the better one your'll get better use out of it I think. I also think those things they charge way too much for what you get! You have to make everything on them right and they still fail somewhere. Hey, great fireside chat! Have a good one, my man!

I've got the same rotary table, and the same issues as you have. The little thumb locking screw has a taper which is supposed to lock the table via an angled groove in the table, which tends to lift the table upwards. I stripped mine down hoping to machine a better groove to apply downwards pressure but there isn't enough metal to do it!!!

10:33 Not really sure which one you're measuring with the dial test indicator, as you didn't say, but I'm hoping you were checking if it has any run out from factory, and not getting it centred perfectly with the spindle. You have to rotate the spindle with the indicator in it to find centre. I also have the 6" Vertex like a bunch of others here, and seems pretty decent to me. I bought the version with indexing plates, but I don't think I've used them yet, as the one time I wanted to I couldn't find the number I wanted, so had to use the hole function on the D.R.O for I think 24 holes. The thing I was making, (and I would recommend making one yourself once you find a need) was a round fixture plate to go on the rotary table. I think mine is about 210mm diametre on a 150mm table. With I think 94 tapped M8 holes. Makes it alot more useful clamping things being bigger and not being so limited by the 90° seperated T-slots. I partially got the idea from a Click Spring video, who got the idea from someone else.

I know you probably don’t want to buy another one, but I have heard that Vertex makes a good quality rotary table. Also I like how you approach the problems you have with your tools. Instead of complaining you try your hardest to make it work. Imo that’s the way to be. Kudos!

It was an instructive video, thank you! It helps some people not to spend money on such a device.

Not sure if you can get Phase II rotabs in Australia, but I'm happy with mine.

I think most of the small cheap tables come from India. I found a Vevor 6" non-tilting for about $160 USD. Very happy with it so far. It comes with indexing plates which I haven't used.

A cheap tool is a good bargain, you get a tool and an improvement project to work on.

Yeah, HAFCO aren't always the cheapest option out there. Always a good idea to shop around.

I bought the “cheap” one the same as yours and experienced similar issues. Also it’s almost useless set at an angle as it’s just not rigid enough. But it still works sort of ok if I’m careful.

Heyyyy, that's a nice box! 😂

Do not worry about it too much--a couple of years ago I bought a set of adjustable reamers--3mm--20mm--totally useless they could not ream lead---I learn the hard way

Where do you get your lathe tools from?

Have you stripped it down and cleaned the inside yet ? I bought an identical RT and it felt gritty . When stripped it was full of grease and casting sand making an excellent grinding paste ! It's now much smoother and feels better in use. I certainly wouldn't recommend this RT to any one. Having said that it has been useful for my intended uses.

Bit of a let down, but then again I suppose if you are not buying high end precision gear, you have to accept that will happen occasionally. But overall for the home shop, this sort of price bracket is still the way to go and overall far better value for money spent. Hopefully your new clamp will prove to do the job and make it a useful tool going forward.

I picked up a 6 inch rotary table about 15 years ago and yes it is also an import.I have had good luck with it but after 16 years being a hobby machinist i have learned one thing about import tooling...ONLY AS A LAST RESORT...I just replaced an import 3 ton arbor press.Bent the shaft while trying to broach a 1/4 key way....Bought a Greenerd 3 ton....I payed more for the import then i did for the Greenerd...Now i shop around before buying..Used in good shape is the only way to go...

I have a 6" rotary table with just the ability to be mounted flat or on its side at 90 degrees it has two downward pressure locks at 180 degrees to lock the table and I have had no issues with it. I used a 19 mm thick round aluminium plate to make a back plate for the 5" four jaw independent chuck that came with my lathe and used that for work holding. The rotary table has a morse2 taper in the centre and I had a spare mt2 arbor so I bored a hole in the aluminium back plate to I think 15 or 16 mm and fitted the MT 2 arbor into a 2-3 adaptor and again into a 3-4 MT adaptor to fit into my MT4 lathe spindle and then turned the MT2 arbor to fit the back plate. So the chuck mounts to the back plate by the normal 120 degree 8 mm bolts then the centring arbour goes into the rotary table and the whole chuck and back plate fits onto the centring arbor and I only use two home made long tee nuts and bolts through the very limited room I've hot either side of the chuck ( 1/2" a side) to get a turned down headed 8 mm hex head cap screw to hold the chuck and back plate down. I've recently added a brand new Vevor 5 three jaw which I bought to use on my lathe as it came second hand and without the reverse jaws for the 5.1" chuck with the 100 mm back register. I didn't know that there were two different 5 inch' chuck ' standards' one with 95 mm register and one with 100 mm register, well the Vevor one was 95 mm so I made a back plate for it from 20 mm steel plate and that works fine on the lathe. I adapted the rotary table back plate to accept the new Vevor chuck so I have three jaw concentric with two sets of jaws capability and four jaw independent capability for my rotary table now and I'm very happy with it.

That rotary table is arc furnace fodder. Well done for making it work, after it furiously resisted the improvements.

The sound of the plastic wrapper was more pronounced than the initial applause of the video. 😆

I'd love to see you upgrade to a larger lathe. I went from a mini like you have to a Bolton BT1030a benchtop and then finally got a Smithy 14x40 which I use for gunsmithing. Life is much easier when you can hog through work.

I bought a 80mm from India for super cheap and I took it apart straight out of the box and cleaned it well, I was expecting JUNK .. Turned out to be great ! ya, Just never know these days with over the pond tooling .

Does anyone know from where i could get a blank for a gear cutter? I have a very specific profile that i need to cut..

I have a similar one, no tilt though. Guess I have nothing to lose by cracking it open.

wow! a box!

Makes me wonder with machining required anyway ,just a couple of 45 degree interlocking plates turned on the lathe with an on-axis magnetic encoder underside. and some clamping mechanism. maybe made from an old topslide .Ah the rabit hole of indexing head accuracy .

thisYoungTony at it again :D

This could be the perfect starter for a rotary welding table. Just a thought.

😮😮 Has the hacksaw's time run up?

i have the shop fox rotary table, its around the same size and price, but it has not tilting, so its much more stable

That's a lot of monkeying around- 1- Drill through the threaded mounting holes from the back to the front. 2. Counterbore the holes on the front side for socket head bolts 3. Use the chuck jaws to grip around an arbor in the center of the rotary table to center the chuck on the table 4.Punch mark through the mounting holes and drill and tap the table for your socket head screws. Keep your centering arbor in your toolbox and you can mount the chuck perfectly centered in seconds. You should have bought the 4.3" table which has a whole different construction and also has optional dividing plates.

Not really related but any recommendations for oil pumps/jugs within Australia? I've tried a few and they're trash unless they're full.

Is there a combination dividing head/rotary table made by anyone?

To make the sub plate repeatable for concentricity a very good method is to cut in keyways into the sub plate and fit keys @ 90 degrees to form a cross or simply cut the keys directly into the sub plate. As a bonus, this arrangement does not reduce the thru' hole diameter of the table like a spigot would. Good files are expensive and like any cutting tool have a optimal cutting speed. Running the lathe at the speed shown here will quickly destroy the file and severely pin it up. As a guide imagine you were drilling a hole the same size as your workpiece using HSS. This speed range is better for the file and a lot safer to boot.

product link please

As soon as I saw that screw lock in its side I knew it was no use. I purchased a plain one sometime ago It let me down immediately. Stick with the 90:1 type with the locks that clamp down. The problem is the clearance between the outer casting & the table is too great. Resulting in around 6 thou of movement. It hurts to see when you put so much effort in to do the work correctly. Mervyn Price

I have Vertex rotary table. It is probably a mid price point and has suited what I do. It has a 90/1 drive ratio which gives better resolution but takes alot of cranking to get there 😁. Fitted with dividing plates I have produced great gears and other exciting stuff. The only downside is it is not tilting but I can live with that but it can be mounted vertically & horizontally. It needed stripping and cleaning before first use but I tend to expect that with any tool and satisfys my craving to take stuff apart to see how they work 🤪. I have the matching tailstock and that has proved invaluable to provide rigidity on longer projects and when using mandrels.

your locking issue maybe the size of the pawl on the locking lug if you file it down or grind it it may help from lifting

AND HOW CAN I ORDER THAT PART??

10:06 for a second I thought he was gonna leave it like that and call it a day

I found that the first thing to do with any chinese gear is strip it, measure everything, square it all up, then clean, oil and reassemble. All of my cheapo kit has been 're-manufactured' where possible to improve very poor accuracy, which is now up to 'home wshop' standards, give or take 0.01mm.

I NEED price and how to order it please?

@11:09 you can see the hand wheel look like its on a cam shaft as you turn it , like it has an eccentric shaft ?

Definitely pay more for your tooling. It will bring you more joy and most is actually ready to use, all of these cheap Chinese/ Indian tooling isn't finished, its only cheap because they leave the finishing work to you so hopefully you know how. Honestly i don't understand how people use these types of things without cleaning or anything. Mine had chunks broken off with metal and coating inside.

Quality. At least this piece doesn't reek of it.

From the start I was questioning why you did not use the Lathe to turn the Rotary Table Face Plate from the start.

Thanks. Might have saved me a lot of grief.

That sucks. I wonder if full rebuild could find issues and fix them.

A while ago I bougth a Vertex VU-150 rotary table and at the same time an 'identical' no-name chinese type for comparision. Yes, the Vertex was more expensive. And yes, the difference was a little bit painful. But what a difference in quality and especially in practicability! I can adjust the worm gear to nearly zero backlash and it still works smooth as silk. And the table has no play at all, it's absolutly no problem milling curves with it. Different story with the no name: It was impossible to adjust the worm gear so on the one hand it has no play and on the other hand it doesn't jam. And the table fit was looser so you had to clamp it every time to prevent chatter, milling curves wasn't fun at all. Long story short: You get what you pay for, and in case of such a rotary table it's well spend money. Don't make the same mistake again sparing money here, you will be annoyed sooner or later.