Vertex BS-0 dividing head ?

I am thinking of buying a BS-0 dividing head and have been looking at what is available. Sadly original used Brown & Sharpe examples seem unobtainable so have been looking at the currently manufactured copies. They are all of course made in the far east and all look pretty much identical in the pictures on various websites and eBay. The unbranded ones seem improbably cheap costing as little as £300 including a three jaw chuck. The Vertex branded versions look indistinguishable but cost a bit more at around £450 (from Rotagrip for example). My question is are they actually all identical (and maybe manufactured in the same factory) or are the Vertex versions better in some way? Ideally I want a unit that will work well straight 'out of the box' without requiring fettling like so many inexpensive tools do. I've got few Vertex products and they do seem fairly consistent and reasonably well made so am inclined to pay the extra but would be interested in hearing from anyone who has experience with any of these.

Yes i hear vertex do make a good product, even though they are Taiwanese i believe. If you have a look at Stefan Gotteswinters channel on youtube, he pulls one of their rotary tables to bits and tests it, and improves its slightly, but i think he said it was not a bad product to start with.

This old tony did something similar with a vertex milling vice and again he found it was not bad, especially for the money.

With a non-name product, you really are asking for trouble, and while some of the old western made tools are great quality, most are worn by now unless you are really lucky to find one that has not been used much.

I have a Vertex 4" RT and it is very good. I'm sure that other makes are perceived to be better by many, but it's solid, reliable well made etc, and does the job very well. I have some other Vertex stuff (milling vice, collet chucks, collets, etc) All the Vertex bits I have are of good quality, not the best but absolutely better than most. Taiwanese stuff is generally pretty good.

cheers

Bill

Edited By Bill Pudney on 25/09/2018 13:03:49

Ronan,

I have used a Vertex BS-0 dividing head 'straight out of the box' and had good results with it for gear cutting. The test I hold as one of good tracking performance is that I have been able to pass the cutter back down the initial cut [on a high tooth count wheel for example] without it touching the sides.

For that to happen both the worm and the worm wheel have to be made to a good specification. The indexing plates likewise.

The bore in mine claims to be a Brown and Sharpe taper and a well fitting centre was provided, but I found it hard to detect any error in the fit of a 2 MT drill sleeve for example

I hope that helps you decide

Regards Brian

Hi,

When I was senior Engineer at a local University we bought some CNC mills.

The supplier included a few BT40 ER chucks but not nearly enough for our needs,

As we hadn't set enough aside in our budget to fully kit out all the machines we had to try and buy at a cheaper price. Some of the technicians weren't too happy about buying cheaper holders as they were working with REALLY expensive materials and precise jobs.

We bought a few Vertex chucks from a local supplier at about 40% of the mill manufacturers cost to see how they did. Within a few weeks the technicians said to buy Vertex in the future as they were superior to the original supplied chucks. We bought several hundred Vertex products after that and everything was 100% although we never bought a BS-0 dividing head.

I have one and I made several clocks with it only issues I have had is that it is quite large and after a while (a couple of clocks) you need to adjust the backlash but it is easy to do.

I have since bought a smaller one the Geo Thomas which fits my Cowells mill so the Vertex one is for sale £80 with tail stock plus shipping

Edited By Stephen Benson on 25/09/2018 13:16:50

Hello Stephen

Two PMs for you with a potential buyer.

Regards

Brian

Stephen , I have a Vertex rotary table and am generally pleased with it . Please be aware however , there were some mistakes in the division table , but corrected versions have been published . Not sure if this situation applies to the BSO product .

Trevor.

Have had an Indian tool and will not buy another tool from India it was replaced .

The replacement was no better have a few Vertex tools and they are OK for the price.

Whatever about China, anything from India is truely junk. I have made the mistake of buying some spares for my old triumph and bsa, that turned out to be from India. They were worse than the original worn out parts.

I don’t know how hard people push their Vertex rotary table, but I treat mine with caution - I want it to last - as I get the impression that, even though accurate and good value, they are not so forgiving to rough treatment as some older, better quality items.

I helped a friend time a Triumph 650cc rebuilt engine and could not get it running smoothly the culprit Indian magneto carbon brushes they were as soft as ### arcing round the slip ring.

Was this on the generator side? I’ve never had a magneto with brushes (apart from in the distributor side). All mine simply induce a current (at firing time) with a moving magnet, and coil arrangement to raise the voltage. Never looked at a bonneville, etc magneto.

It would be a lucas k2f mag on a triumph twin.

Have had a few small dividing heads pass through my hands, including a Vertex......which was nice, however the Homge was nicerer ........... looked a bit lost sat on a Beaver mill table though, so current one is a nasty looking

thing, but considerably biggerer

Interesting comments re Indian made tools. I'm not sure we can legitimately generalise about the manufacturing quality of an entire nation but I avoid Indian made tools as well. Purchased a milling vice made in India a few years ago that was comically bad. Once bitten etc.....

Some Indian stuff is very good (Zither Chucks) and most of the Soba/Shoba stuff is pretty good these days.

The cheaper stuff is very hit and miss.

As Taiwan caught up with Japan, China is catching up with Taiwan, India will catch up with China. Some Brazilian stuff is very good but we don't see much other than drills and cutters over here.

I reckon we will see stuff coming out of sub-Sahara Africa next and it will start on the same journey.

Neil

Here is a link to a few magneto's of many old motorcycles

The brushes are in the holders for the HT leads

**LINK**

Wait until the Nigerian scammers start “producing” stuff for our hobby. Never actually made, so never delivered and your bank account will take a serious dive!

Yes, but the quality will be second to none!

On a positive note, I have a number of Vertex products, including a dividing head, rotary tables (4 at last count), adjustable angle table, milling vice and several sets of ER collets (ER8 to ER40), all of which I have found to be more than satisfactory for my use. I could possibly buy more expensive but I am stuck with the limitations of the existing operator and I confidently believe that to be the limiting factor.

Pero