Help Traming Round Column Mill

[Playingwithmetal]

I am once again in need of some of your advice. I am new to this old Taiwan model jet 15 mill drill. I do not understand where the shims will be placed directly my the traming process. The base does not detach from the round colum in any way that I can see. Here are the pics of my dilemma. I am sure it is a simple case of lack or understanding on my part.
Thanks in advance
Dylan

 

[newbydave]

I am once again in need of some of your advice. I am new to this old Taiwan model jet 15 mill drill. I do not understand where the shims will be placed directly my the traming process. The base does not detach from the round colum in any way that I can see. Here are the pics of my dilemma. I am sure it is a simple case of lack or understanding on my part.
Thanks in advance
Dylan

View attachment 120350 View attachment 120351 View attachment 120352 View attachment 120354

4 cap screws at the base are loosened and shims placed in appropriate place to bring into tram. If the front is low you add shim to front of base. Front high shim back. Same with left and right sides.
Re tighten and check continuing until it is trammed. Good idea to have plenty of shim thicknesses.
Can be a tedious process but when it's done it is done.

 

[Playingwithmetal]

When I loosen the cap screws are the shims placed between the round column and the green base? The base (green part) is all one piece. So still unsure where the shims actually go.
Thanks for your reply.

 

[coffmajt]

I think paint and Bondo are making it appear that the base is one piece when it really is two separate parts. Once you loosen the cap screws slightly and push on the column, you should see a parting line, which is the joint that will need the shims -- Jack

 

[T Bredehoft]

Just a suggestion, use a 6" (or longer) arm to move the indicator away from the center. That will give you considerably greater correction.

 

[Playingwithmetal]

Thanks. That makes sense. This machine was in great shape when I picked it up for $160. Apparently it has never been tramed. I will try that. I have not spent any time working on the screws because I wanted to know what I was doing before breaking something. Lol. They are stuck pretty bad. I think I'll try some penetrating oil and see how that goes. Last thing I want to do is strip them and have to tig on nibs to get em out.

 

[hman]

Once you figure out how the column separates from the base, you might want to take a look at Rick Sparber's article on his tramming technique for a round column mill:
http://rick.sparber.org/TM.pdf

 

[rock_breaker]

Thanks for running this post, got me off the backside and out in the shop. The discussion and article helped a lot.
Did not move the table or do anything afterward but now have an apparent run out of .003". Will check that out on a warmer day.
Have a good day
Ray

 

[george wilson]

I had a mill like that. The 4 screws need to be loosened,then,the top part of the base of the mill will break loose about 1" from the top. This revealed about 1/4" of plaster under the paint on my machine! I inserted shims there till the column was more perfectly vertical to the table.

The trouble with this whole design is that the column bends more or less depending on how high you crank the head. So,you can only achieve so much by tramming the column in the first place. This is a design limitation. When you get a knee mill,you'll be better able to tram it.

 

[stupoty]

I had a mill like that. The 4 screws need to be loosened,then,the top part of the base of the mill will break loose about 1" from the top. This revealed about 1/4" of plaster under the paint on my machine! I inserted shims there till the column was more perfectly vertical to the table.

The trouble with this whole design is that the column bends more or less depending on how high you crank the head. So,you can only achieve so much by tramming the column in the first place. This is a design limitation. When you get a knee mill,you'll be better able to tram it.

It's definetly worth moving the head up and down to see what it's doing at either end of the round coloum too.

I found that the head alignment changed quite a bit between un-clamping moving up or down and then re-clamping. I tend to shim my vice or work to the head if I need it to be very very flat.

Worth having a look though as their might be chips or other bad finish between the coloum and the base that makes it worse than it can be.

Stuart