Rotary Table CNCing

[irving2008]

Yes I pulled the worm out and internally there is a cast iron to cast iron bearing. It would be possible to fit a thrust bearing in there but the problem is finding a small enough OD diameter with an ID of 10mm. Possible a needle thrust if i could find something small enough, but the smallest is 24mm OD, or 18mm as a ball thrust washer. Another option could be an oiliite washer maybe?

It really needs to be <15mm OD i.e. about the same dia as the worm gear, I think, because of the offset of the spindle. The alternative would be to bore out the base of the cavity just above the wormwheel to a diameter of about 20mm to allow the eccentric to rotate the thrust washer into when disengaging the drive. Not impossible to do, but tricky, and means stripping the rest of the table down.