Building a Welding Turn Table

Most of this was done later yesterday afternoon.  I bought some random wheel bearings and rotors on Amazon a few years ago buy searching by price low to high.  They were for this project and it's finally getting done, like the engine turn table parts that have been here for years as well...     The wheel bearing and rotor were less than $20 for this project. 

The inside of the wheel bearing was a little under 1 3/16", so a piece of 1 3/16" rod was used then turned down a little on the lathe.  A collar was used on both sides to secure the rod and make it removable.  The bottom collar will be welded to a 1/4" plate for stability, the rotor will mount upside down like in the pic and will do really good in dissipating the heat.  

I'll put more in here next week as it gets worked on.  

 

Had a little time early this morning so the wheel bearing hub got 2 more holes drilled in it to mount the rotor to.  I could drill the other 2 but they would be pretty close to the original holes, and 3 is more than enough to hold it.  Someone asked why didn't I just weld everything up and it could have been done before now.  My reply was - you know that's not my style, plus what if I had to replace something, change something, or add to it later...  

I had a little time left before leaving today to shear and blast a piece of the old workbench top that was cut up over the past few days for a base.  The plate is a little under 14 x 14".  The hub is on it about where it will sit.  Next the edges will get smoothed out and the corners rounded a bit on the plate, then the collar will be welded to the plate so the other parts can still be disassembled.  

 

Got a few more things done on it today.  The plate is smoothed up and the collar is welded on.  The next thing was a good grounding point for the welder.  The shaft was put on the mill to make a flat spot for a long bolt (still need something longer) that will make a really good ground and keep it stationary as it spins.  The inside of the plate and collar was also kept unpainted to help with grounding.   

 

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last got to work on this...  Time flies whether you're having fun or not. 

I have a need for it next week so I need to get it done and maybe a few adapters by then.  The main shaft grounding bolt is done, just a long carriage bolt with a square nut welded to it to tighten it and a collar to protect the threads or ground to.  The bolt hits the milled flat spot on the shaft at the bottom to keep it tight and stationary (see above post).  The bearing would most likely take it since it's dual inner + outer 1/2" caged bearings for a vehicle and can hold a few thousand pounds of weight and shear force, but better to go overboard.    The ones that are in the $1,500 - 2,000 range only do 480 pounds and have a cheap little single row made in China bearing in them...

The center shaft was made just a little long on purpose in the beginning for this step.  Next was turning the 1 3/16" shaft down at the end to a little under 1 1/16".  Then the iron worker punched a 1 1/16" hole in the top plate being used for now so it can spin, and hold the plate in place.  Any other adapters made can just have the same hole punched in them to keep them in place, and no tools are needed to change them. 

After that an extra ground was put under the plate to make a good ground path from the 1 3/16" shaft to the rotor.  There were 2 extra holes not being used so some bolts got put in them, then a shorter braided ground strap like being used on the tractors now was wrapped around it almost 2 times with a spring on the end to keep a light tension on it.  Yea I know, more overkill.     I used a rotor for this turn table because average normal braking temps are around 2,000 degrees and they dissipate heat well.

It spins nicely and has more grounding than it needs so I guess the basic design is done minus what pieces and adapters need to be made to put on top of the rotor to do different jobs.  I hope this helps someone who wants to make a home made cheap manual welding turn table.   

It could also be easily powered with a small 120 volt motor, sewing machine switch, a few pulleys and a belt.  Maybe later...