3" Rotary Table
From Fozzee.net
For the project Seth and I are currently working on, it's been determined that we needed a rotary table. The plan is to attach a chuck directly to the face of the table, and hold the table upright in the vise, so that we can put a series of flat sides on a round object.
Said rotary table was purchased from Harbor Freight on something of a whim. More expensive tables were considered, but just about everything was 3x more expensive, and 30% larger. In retrospect, the 3" table we got barely fits in the vise as is. A 4" would be out of the question.
As for quality, I'm impressed. I'm left to assume that the giant "India" engraved on the front describes the device's country of manufacture, and let me just say I have a new respect for Indian tools (so far, this is the first that I'm aware of, and I haven't really used it yet). The worm screw seems to have very little (not detectable to me) slop, and the faces are at least as flat as my 1-2-3 blocks (.002" in 3"). That said, the included hardware is basically junk (the t-nuts aren't very square at all... not that it matters) and the face finishes leave something to be desired.
Given all that, and HF's standard 20% 1-item discount made this something of a no-brainer.
Drill Chuck
I know it's not ideal (and probably verges on mortal sin), but we're planning on using a drill chuck to hold the work to the table. We built a steel bar that fit into one of the T-Slots with a bit of play, and tapped a 1/4-20 hole in it. The chuck is then mounted by running the screw down through the retention hole in the back of the throat, and into the tapped hole.
At first, I was concerned that the back of the chuck wasn't going to be square and/or true, but I centered it on the table by indicating to a lathe-turned pin held in the chuck and things seem just fine... Not perfect, but I'm within .0015" or so, at the end of the 2" pin.
If accuracy turns out to be a problem (Which it didn't in a quick test), the back of the chuck could be faced on the lathe.
