Tramming tool

[ChrisA Edwards]

Just came across this tool while watching some YouTube videos.

Is this a worthwhile tool to have for calibrating the spindle as regards X and Y tilt?

[Kevin Jenness]

Easy enough to make one with a 1/2" bolt or dowel and a 1x2, used with feeler gauges.

[David Buchhauser]

That is a very nice looking tool! It might be "over-kill" for a cnc router, but the price seems reasonable. They sell this same brand tool on Amazon with dial indicators that read 0.001" per division (not the 0.0005") shown above. Cost is $86.67. I have always trammed in my spindle on my Bridgeport mill and cnc router tables by sweeping a single dial indicator around on top of a piece of MIC6 aluminum tooling plate. If you could adjust the spindle on your cnc router such that your dial indicator reading changes by less than 0.001" while sweeping a 12" diameter circle, then your spindle deviation from being perpendicular to the table would be less than 1/100 of a degree. This is most likely better than needed for the majority of cnc router tasks.
David

[Jim Becker]

I made my own with a piece of scrap wood and a couple of bolts.

The commercial product you show appears to be very nice and the dial indicators certainly provide the ability to put numbers to the task. You have to weigh the fact that this is an adjustment you do initially and "once in a blue moon". It's not a regular maintenance item, honestly.

[Jerome Stanek]

I made mine out of a piece of acrylic and a Harbor Freight Dial indicator

[ChrisA Edwards]

I think you've persuaded me to go the home made tool route. I have a similar tool (Woodpeckers) for my table saw setup, but since I did the setup, that's been in a drawer for 5+ years.

[Bruce Page]

I have used tramming heads on conventional milling machines and truthfully, they’re not worth the trouble, or cost. The limited 6” swath is insufficient for accurately tramming in a CNC router bed, and the tips dropping into t-slots & holes is annoying.
There are better options.

These are two that I use:

[Wes Grass]

After raising, and lowering, the gantry on the router I was using, I'd tram the spindle in with a long zip tie spring clamped to the spindle nut, or even a cutter shank. Just by eyeballing the gap between the end of it and the table. At a 6 or 8" radius, you can get it pretty darned close.

My milling machine gets swept in with a good test indicator on a ground ring that can span the vises.