Has anyone made a dual axis tramming tool?

I bought one of the SPIs and they are great. I would like to buy one that has a little more distance between the indicators.


It's funny. after I bought mine I was reamed a new one on a few boards for wasting my money. However I felt it was very accurate and my parts have come out accurate as well. After a few weeks a few of the "older" guys bought/borrowed some and did great reviews and said they were great for tramming a mill.

Not sure why it is when a newbie finds something very useful they are attacked because it is not the OLD way of doing things. Kinda of the treatment I got when I tried to tell fellow employees the computer was going to replace the drafting board ######

Anyway, these are great for setting up as well as a quick check.


author=Allthumbz link=topic=1723.msg10506#msg10506 date=1302870014]

Hey Guys,

This is available commercially, but I thought some of you may have made one. It is a dual axis tramming tool for a mill.


Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
author=Magnum link=topic=1723.msg25450#msg25450 date=1315783120
I bought one of the SPIs and they are great. I would like to buy one that has a little more distance between the indicators.


It's funny. after I bought mine I was reamed a new one on a few boards for wasting my money. However I felt it was very accurate and my parts have come out accurate as well. After a few weeks a few of the "older" guys bought/borrowed some and did great reviews and said they were great for tramming a mill.

Not sure why it is when a newbie finds something very useful they are attacked because it is not the OLD way of doing things. Kinda of the treatment I got when I tried to tell fellow employees the computer was going to replace the drafting board ######

Anyway, these are great for setting up as well as a quick check.


author=Allthumbz link=topic=1723.msg10506#msg10506 date=1302870014
Hey Guys,

This is available commercially, but I thought some of you may have made one. It is a dual axis tramming tool for a mill.


Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
author=brucer link=topic=1723.msg25462#msg25462 date=1315786360
How much do the tramming things cost?
i think its and added cost that isnt needed, you could spend that money on other more useful tooling, maybe a set of angle plates or a rotary table, a drill chuck or such... just my opinion..
Click to expand...

Yea, that was the response I got. What people spend on their equipment is irrelevant sometimes. At the time I had just spent $40K on my machines/tooling and scanning equipment so an extra $200 was a drop in the bucket. I have recovered my cost on this tool.
 
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Magnum

I agree, we are in this as a hobby to have fun and enjoy ourselves. Ultimately it is up to us to justify the cost of our hobby. If i see something that I want for my hobby, I will get it. I bought the Taiwan lathe instead of the Chinese lathe even though it was over twice as expensive, because I could and because I wanted the better quality. It was my money and it is my enjoyment that is at stake.

So way to go for getting the indicator that you wanted, regardless of what else the money could have been spent on!

It was spent on your enjoyment and that is waht really matters.

Walter
 
When I first made my one, there were lots of derogatory remarks about it, saying it wasn't needed, other methods were better to tramming wasn't all that important anyway.

By the time I made the second one for a disabled friend, people couldn't make one fast enough. Especially after I did a post about the effects of being out of tram.

With mine, and I suspect the same with the commercial ones as well, I can be trammed, adjusted, done and dusted in about 5 minutes without getting up from my chair.

If they were at the reasonable prices they are nowadays, I maybe wouldn't have made mine, but bought one. Mine would cost, to buy the metal and clocks etc, about 25 to 30 UK pounds, plus about 4 to 5 hours work. They can be bought here for about 70 pounds, so taking into account the labour involved, the commercial one is cheaper, but I did enjoy making them.

John
 
author=Magnum link=topic=1723.msg25465#msg25465 date=1315786873
author=brucer link=topic=1723.msg25462#msg25462 date=1315786360
How much do the tramming things cost?
i think its and added cost that isnt needed, you could spend that money on other more useful tooling, maybe a set of angle plates or a rotary table, a drill chuck or such... just my opinion..
Click to expand...

Yea, that was the response I got. What people spend on their equipment is irrelevant sometimes. At the time I had just spent $40K on my machines/tooling and scanning equipment so an extra $200 was a drop in the bucket. I have recovered my cost on this tool.
Click to expand...

so this is now a professional machining forum?
I dont know too many hobbyist's spending 40k on machines, tooling and scanners...

I took $200 that one of those tram tools cost (or the cost of 2 decent indicators and the time it cost to make it) and bought 2 matching suburban angle plates, 2 drill chucks, a decent 6" kurt vise, set of r8 collets and a box of endmills and inserts... as a hobbyist i try to stretch my money as far as i can, as a professional toolmaker i dont need a tramming tool.

its not being derogatory or negative, i can find better things to spend my time and money on...

guess i have a different view of the machine tool trades than others do.. i dont throw time and money away on uneeded tooling..
 
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author=brucer link=topic=1723.msg25496#msg25496 date=1315803164

so this is now a professional machining forum?
I dont know too many hobbyist's spending 40k on machines, tooling and scanners...
Click to expand...

Well... I guess you wouldn't like the fact I just spent $250 on a fishing rod/reel then for my other hobby? People spend what they can afford.

But it does seem I am not in the correct forums of peers.. Guess I am now considered a professional and should move on.
 
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Magnum

I do not think you need to move on. There are quite a few of us that have spent large amounts on our workshops. My workshop sort of doubles as a small business / hobby. As I have stated before it is often hard for me to determine where the hobby starts and the work ends.

Even though this forum is more aimed at the Hobby Machinist, it requires members with all sorts of skill levels and all sorts of shop set ups to be sucessful. Those that have more experience can help those with less experience. Those with one type of equipment can help somebody else with the same type of equipment. Even the most inexperienced person in one area can have a mountain of experience in an other area.

Magnun, hold in there, yes there are a few chaps that figure we can be a hobby machinist and spend nothing, or very little. Unfortuantaley this is a hobby that cost money, time and or both. The machine is the cheapest part of the equation, it is the tooling that adds up.

Aslo keep this in mind; What is the difference between an Amatuer and a Professional (Machinist, Photographer, etc?)

Only one thing, the Professional gets paid! There is nothing that says an Amateur can not, or is not better at his craft than a Professional. Many Amatuers have met over the years actually do work to better standards than most Pro's I have met.

Walter
 
Jerry

Any time you are dealing with a table that is rough and pitted, and where some previous operator forgot to place sacrificial boards under the work and drilled divots into the table, you need to first start by stoning the table to remove any high spots.

Next we set the indicator tip to avoid as many of those (extra) holes as possible. Now we tram the head by doing our best to make sure that we are not dropping the needle of the indicator into a divot, or even the T-Slot grooves.

Here is a good link to an article on Milling machine tramming by Tom Davis of the Valley Metal Club based out of Arizona.

http://hobby-machinist.com/index.php?topic=143.0

Walter
 
Jerry

Never said that! Rarely would I consider removing the table and having it ground!

Use a hand stone and remove any raised burrs and dings. If you really want to clean up the table get some metal filled epoxy like Devcon and fill in any divots that are left, then carefully file, and stone them down to get a table surface that looks almost blemish free. The main point is that a raised bump on the table will cause a part placed on it to roack and not sit flat to the table, a depressed divot on the other hand will act more as an oil well and less as a hinderance in that most items clamped over it will bridge without a problem, and will not be effected in any way by the hole. Large gashes, and chunks may be a problem.

Walter
 
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