WoW....Checked the tram on my new PM 728-VT

I got my new tram gauge today and I checked the tram on my new 728 vt . It was dead nuts in both axis.....I didn’t have to do any adjustments at all....Thank You Precision Mathews.....:)
I too got me one of those fancy new tram gauges today from Edge Technology. Quite nice, especially for tramming the nod on knee mills. My tram is <0.0005 on the X and Y axes.
 
Mine was dead nuts too. With a haimer I saw less than 0.02mm across the entire X axis!
I believe they are trammed before they leave the factory and are really tightened well.
It was really good to see this.
How do you like the Haimer?
I want one, but $43 if you break one of those little red ceramic "mechanical fuses", kinda turns me off, at the price of the instrument, IMHO they could at least provide one spare.
 
Dumb question for the OP: Did you turn the spindle 180 degrees and confirm that the readings don't change?
 
How do you like the Haimer?
I want one, but $43 if you break one of those little red ceramic "mechanical fuses", kinda turns me off, at the price of the instrument, IMHO they could at least provide one spare.
I try to be really careful with those ceramic tips as they are priced very richly.
I find the haimer more convenient than nearly every other tool that gives around 0.001 accuracy. It is convenient as it measures deviation in all axes. There isn't much judgment required -- as in say a wiggler. It does everything -- edge finding, center finding. No corrections to be applied to DRO later.
The only device that is more convenient to use is the Dan Gelbart laser centering device (centerquic.com). That is supposed to be accurate to 0.002". I've found it a bit better than that actually. But this device isn't as versatile as the haimer.

There is the ever present worry that I will break a tip so that is a downside.

There was a device that was haimer clone with $7 tips that came up on kickstarter but they didnt raise enough money unfortunately.
 
Dumb question for the OP: Did you turn the spindle 180 degrees and confirm that the readings don't change?
He did. Note that the T-slots have rotated 90 degrees between his two pictures.

I hear he did it the "iron man way", and held the indicators still, and rotated the whole mill ;)
 
He did. Note that the T-slots have rotated 90 degrees between his two pictures.

I hear he did it the "iron man way", and held the indicators still, and rotated the whole mill ;)
No, I was asking if it had been turn 180 degrees. Depending upon how the dial indicators are zeroed, they "could" read something very different when their positions are swapped. The only way that's not an issue is if the indicators are known to extend the exact same amount, and that the shaft in the quill is known to be exactly 90° to the plane of the indicators.
 
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No, I was asking if it had been turn 180 degrees. Depending upon how the dial indicators are zeroed, they "could" read something very different when their positions are swapped. The only way that's not an issue is if the indicators are known to extend the exact same amount, and that the shaft in the quill is known to be exactly 90° to the plane of the indicators.
Sorry about that, I mis-read your question.
 
Depending upon how the dial indicators are zeroed, they "could" read something very different when their positions are swapped.

The usual procedure is to zero both on the same point, rotating 180° to do so. The Edge Technologies tool comes with a small magnet to zero on. It seems impossible (as you mention) to use a dual-indicator trimming device without doing so. Once you’ve zeroed them that way, it’s hard to see much benefit from rotating and remeasuring the reference surface too, but I suppose one could.
 
assume that if you rotate the tool 180 and the reading is off then either the tramming tool is not square or the collet and/or spindle is not true?
 
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