I hate tramming the Mini Mill

For those who have a mill you know tramming can be a time consuming pain in the Ass. For minimll owners there is an ez solution called the EZ TRAM.

It comes with a Base and Shank piece that are precision ground flat and parallel to .0003” over entire surface

You place the base on the mill table and the mount the top to the spindle with a collet.

You then loosen the column and lower the head onto the base and tighten lightly.

You can slip a feeler guage or piece of paper between the head and base and lower head on top of it tightly. What you are looking for is equal tension by pulling the paper out. If one side slips and one side is tight you tap over the colum a hair until the paper is sandwiched equally tight all around the circumference.

Once that is done you tighten the colum and now the colum is perfectly square to the table.

The process takes only about 5 minutes.

It can be purchased from little machine shop and the accuracy and speed of set up is worth the cost.

http://littlemachineshop.com/products/product_view.php?ProductID=2603&category=

rickster338

Participant

December 26, 2018 at 11:12 am

The easy way to properly tram in a mill head is to use an indicol and a dial indicator in .001 or a mag base with a with three contact points. attach to the spindle and set micrometer to make contact with the xy table of the mill and rotate the indicator around the table and make the necessary adjustments until the micrometer reads zeroed out as you rotate the micrometer around the spindle’s axis, and your setup and ready to go when you square up the vice on the xy table of your

knifemaker

May 3, 2009 at 4:36 am

Yep. and every time you tilt it for a cut. you have to re tram it when you put it back in position.

One way to guarantee that the head, even on a fixed machine isn’t fully square, is to buy it from arbor freight. I would be very surprised if any of their machines were true. None of them are made in a ISO certified factory. You pay your much lower prices, and like any gamble, You take your chances. As always, you get what you pay for. Precision doesn’t come cheap. But low quality is always too expensive.

Mike

buzzcat

May 2, 2009 at 8:06 pm

quote walt_in_hawaii:

Buzz, there’s no guarantee that the milling head, that is, the actual axis of the cutting tool, will be exactly perpenidcular to the table below it.

Thanks… that’s yet another reason to keep me away from Harbor Freight’s steel-milling aisle. 😆

walt-in-hawaii

May 2, 2009 at 6:28 pm

Buzz, there’s no guarantee that the milling head, that is, the actual axis of the cutting tool, will be exactly perpenidcular to the table below it. What he’s doing is measuring the head relative to the table and adjusting it so that is all squared up. Some machines allow adjusting the head to tilt at an angle, for angled cuts, so it’s possible for the head to drift out of alignment. It is never a good idea to assume everything’s aligned when you get a new machine.

May 2, 2009 at 3:55 pm

I’ve read this thread six times and I still don’t know what the hell you guys are talking about.

May 2, 2009 at 5:47 am

Well, shit, I thought this thread was going to be filled with guys dressed up funny lookin’and talkin with a lisp.

walt

blodnob

May 1, 2009 at 4:55 pm

I think i put dro in the main search and along with all the proper dro’s these are alongside.
Yep just checked. Click on one of the advertised ones and then go to their e,Bay shop.
Look to be from 4″ upto 40″ in both hori’ and vert’ displays.

ingwe

May 1, 2009 at 3:39 pm

quote blodnob:

You can get em with horizontal or vertical displays and they’re as cheap as vernier.
There’s loads for sale on good ol’ ebay.

What are they called on E-bay?

April 30, 2009 at 9:19 am

April 29, 2009 at 6:26 pm

Hey Walkonking
Did you mount the verniers onto the mill to use as a read out, clever idea. I’ve been looking for a cheepish DRO for my minimill but the vernier trick may be cheeper.