Tramming a round column mill

In this video I show how I trammed my round column milling machine. Unfortunately there are no adjusting screws for alignment so you need to shim the column. I also discuss a method for how I worked out how much I needed to shim the column.

[duncanmarks]

Hi, one of the better round column mill alignment posts I have watched, very good practical application considering the condition of the table. bye

[kieranh]

Measured mine last night using a similar method.
Tilting to the right by 0.28mm/176mm and forward by 0.05mm/170mm. Shimming tonight.

[kieranh]

Good video, thank you. Im another kiwi, down in Dunedin.
I bought one from work, it's had a hard life but the bones are good.
Similar tramming issues to what yours had, lean to the right and tilt forward.

[Clackvalve]

I don't know if it crossed your mind, but we had a similar condition bed on a small mill like yours. We used a 4" grinder to take the t's off the bed, ground it using a surface grinder, made new t's and doweled them in worked really well, and is still working. Big job though. Great vid, thanks

[vanmiller]

Well done, I spent hours doing my mill. I made a YouTube video of a spindle brake on my mill that worked out great

[andrewdolinskiatcarpathian]

Excellent result. Patience rewarded. Well done. 👏👏👍😀

[BensWorkshop]

Good work. You will always be able to see where the tool went (as in each run) even if you can't feel it. It is one of the things that make people with shapers love the finish (there are no such marks with a shaper).

You may need to recheck from time to time and with that sort of round column mill you may also need to check when raising an lowering the head.

[LetsRogerThat]

Glad that worked for you. I'm trying to make a sine table that is 8" x 8" and doing the initial milling with a fly cutter. I'm 0.005" out over 8 inches. Its time to tram the mill head I reckon. :( Gilles

[gregwmanning]

Welldone your finished results look excellent.
I have seen some pretty poorly treat drill vices but you mill table takes the cake.
But if you are mostly using a vice or rotary table it should not really matter I reckon.

[bustednuckles]

Subscribed, good video. A way to fix your table is how I fixed and old drill press table that someone had drilled an arc clear across with a 5/8's drill bit. Liquid Steel Epoxy.
It worked a miracle. Clean all the dirt and oil out of the damaged areas. mix some up and apply just enough to fill the deepest holes. It works just like Bondo but it gets very hard.
It sands very easily and you can build it up with multiple applications.
When I got done and threw a quick coat of paint on it the repair was invisible.
Since you don't want to paint your table you will be able to see the repair but it will be 100% functional.

[Ed_Row_Feez]

Has anyone done a CNC conversion to replace the round column upper half of the machine with a custom z axis and spindle? I was thinking of using the xy table base and then fabricating an X axis to replace the round column

[zukjeff]

my column base is cast into the table base. I am lucky, my X-Y table screws to the cast base with 12"x12" bolt hole spacing.

[freestyla]

You make it look simple. What happens if you lower/raise the head on the column? Do you have to repeat the process?

[paradiselost]

clock to a ball, and traverse the table rather than reference the table surface. you want a point relative to the slides. the surface aint necessarily square or parallel.

and the way thats been hammered... definitely. its really begging to be pulled off and run through something a bit bigger first.

[miguelcastaneda]

Often previous owners rebadge their machines