Tramming Tool

[barnett]

Here's my take on a tramming tool, it's not cleaned up yet just finished.
centering in my 4 jaw chuck.

then I drilled it out.

I trued up the top and bottom.

Heres the almost finished project.


I did most of the work on my lathe, because i had no way to tram the vertical head I installed on my horizontal mill.

 

[dlane]

Did mine on mill, half thou indicators, 3/4" shaft, works real good after calibration

Other holes to tram vice.

 

[Billh50]

I have never used this kind of tramming tool and have wondered something. I can not figure why 2 indicators because you would still have to revolve the arm to get a reading unless you have a way to calibrate the unit when made.

 

[Ed ke6bnl]

Just purchased a couple of dial indicator to make one of theses at Travers open house they were very inexpensive. I did not really understand exactly how this tool is zeroed out till I watched the video

and saw the use of the magnet that made it clear and now seems more like a tool I need to make.

 

[aliva]

I made a similar one copied from Edge Technologies. check this link to their pro tram manual. It explains the use very well
http://store-1wa94vq6.mybigcommerce.com/product_images/product_manual/pro_tram/pro_tram_manual.html

 

[Billh50]

Now I see that you need to set it every time before tramming. Makes sense now.

 

[barnett]

I used 1" square and 1/2" drill rod. That the largest collet my spindle will accept. It's a M-head. Here's a couple more pics. I bought the indicators on fleabay for 10.95 ea free shipping.

 

[Pescadora]

After a year of owning the PM30V, decided to tram, just because. Head pointer was off a bit to the left. Did something like the above, but started with a nine inch chunk of .75 drill rod. Chucked that in the 1030MV and turned about an inch down to .464. Why the heck the dial indicator needs such a post to clamp on is beyond me. Not metric or SAE, just a weird size. Anyway, got it to size. Clamped in the vise on the mill and milled off a flat on the opposite end. Drilled that out with cobalt 5/16 and threaded the thru hole with 3/8-16, which was little difficult being O1 drill rod.

Spun in a stepped half inch axle bolt with red Locktite, milled the head off, and called it done.

Mounted, it has a little over 7.5 inch swing radius from spindle to dial indicator tip.

On to the tram. Using the dial indicator on the same 123 block in both X and Y found the X swing diameter of about 15" to yield .0005 and the Y edge to edge to be virtually nil.

So ... thank you, factory guys, wherever you are. Well done.

 

[Technical Ted]

I guess it's different strokes for different folks... I made one of these a few years ago because I had a couple of indicators on hand that were just sitting idle. I think I used it twice. For me, it's easier and faster to just clamp on my Indicol with dial test indicator and do it the old fashion way.

But hey, if you like using them, go for it!

Ted