Tramming Milling Machine

I just finished restoring a used milling machine, and i am still learning all the ins and outs of the tool.

how does one tram a milling head like mine? Do i use shims on the base of the post? How often does one need to tram the actual machine?

Edited By JasonB on 22/06/2020 07:00:54

Have you perused the page of threads, which comes up if you insert ‘tramming’ into the search box? There will be others with other search variations.

Edited By not done it yet on 22/06/2020 05:53:02

I did a search, but haven't seen anything regarding the shimming of the head. Just the actual tramming.

Hi Jeremy

That's how I did mine, by loosening the post from the base and sliding shims in left or right, front or back. It's also how it was done from the factory as I found small shims in there when I first did mine. Its quite a long winded process doing it this way but as far as I'm aware your only real option. I have only done it once but to be fair it's not bang on and could use an adjustment.

Hope that helps, Craig

Don't know what type of mill yours is, so it could have a specific tramming procedure. When I trammed my WM18, which is a very common vertical column mill design, I could not get the head nod right and there's no adjustment for that. The only solution was to shim the column as mentioned above or shim the head. I opted for the latter. The only drawback I can think of if you do it this way is you have to re-shim if you need to rotate the head, but I will not be doing that inless it is absolutely necessary.

How often to do it I think would depend on how you treat your mill, a deep doc with a flycutter might knock it out of tram.

There's a pretty good description of "how" here, about 13 mins in..

Youtube - ThatLazyMachinist

..he uses a similar mill and has some useful things to say..

Edited By DiogenesII on 22/06/2020 07:12:14