PM940 home made tramming tool

RJSakowski said:
I did something similar on my Tormach 770. The 770 has the head fixed to the vertical carriage and is pinned at the factory using two tapered dowel pins, one at the lower left and the other at the upper right. My machine was slightly out of tram. I checked the vertical ways and corrected the slight misalignment. Fortunately, the head was close enough in the y direction to not require shimming but the the head needed to rotate to correct the tram in the x direction.

I pulled the lower left tapered pin and loosened the bolts holding the head to the vertical carriage, thus permitting a slight amount of rotation limited by the clearance holes for the bolts. In order to permit rotation in a controlled and precise manner, I needed a mechanism similar to your concept. I elected to do this in the vertical direction. A Tee shaped block was mounted on the head and straddled by a pi shaped block mounted on the carriage. Two 3/16"dowel pins and a single bolt were used to fix the Tee block. The pi block was fixed with two countersunk socket head cap screws. The legs of the pi block were tapped for 3/8"-24 bolts which are used to make the adjustment. Once the head was trammed correctly, the bolts were tightened and the lower left tapered pin was inserted to firm contact.

Tis is the original model. In production it was modified to add a second leg on the bottom of the Tee block.
View attachment 465878


Here it is mounted on the mill.
View attachment 465888
Click to expand...
I don’t know I am in no shape of form a machinist but i think it can be translated as an ide on how to tramm the column. If one happen to make a 1/2” or 1” 40TPI bolt it can be used to accurately and repeatedly tramm the colum and it might even free hands enough to put the epoxy for that stuff while being precise.

What do you guys think?
 
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RJSakowski said:
I did something similar on my Tormach 770. The 770 has the head fixed to the vertical carriage and is pinned at the factory using two tapered dowel pins, one at the lower left and the other at the upper right. My machine was slightly out of tram. I checked the vertical ways and corrected the slight misalignment. Fortunately, the head was close enough in the y direction to not require shimming but the the head needed to rotate to correct the tram in the x direction.

I pulled the lower left tapered pin and loosened the bolts holding the head to the vertical carriage, thus permitting a slight amount of rotation limited by the clearance holes for the bolts. In order to permit rotation in a controlled and precise manner, I needed a mechanism similar to your concept. I elected to do this in the vertical direction. A Tee shaped block was mounted on the head and straddled by a pi shaped block mounted on the carriage. Two 3/16"dowel pins and a single bolt were used to fix the Tee block. The pi block was fixed with two countersunk socket head cap screws. The legs of the pi block were tapped for 3/8"-24 bolts which are used to make the adjustment. Once the head was trammed correctly, the bolts were tightened and the lower left tapered pin was inserted to firm contact.

Tis is the original model. In production it was modified to add a second leg on the bottom of the Tee block.
View attachment 465878


Here it is mounted on the mill.
View attachment 465888
Click to expand...
I like this idea a lot. I may expand on this with a single bolt on the column with a no backlash split nut on the head so you don't have to worry about loosen, tighten.

It's a mill. Make a tab, bore it, thread it, split it, then install a jack screw in the top of the split tab to remove the backlash.

I may have a need to roll my head over 90* to bore a thing that will be problematic to stand on end. Want to get back to 0. Wish I had the skill and tooling to make a worm gear adj for the head rotation. Should have bought a knee mill.
 
Sticks said:
I like this idea a lot. I may expand on this with a single bolt on the column with a no backlash split nut on the head so you don't have to worry about loosen, tighten.

It's a mill. Make a tab, bore it, thread it, split it, then install a jack screw in the top of the split tab to remove the backlash.

I may have a need to roll my head over 90* to bore a thing that will be problematic to stand on end. Want to get back to 0. Wish I had the skill and tooling to make a worm gear adj for the head rotation. Should have bought a knee mill.
Click to expand...
Do a ceramic shell casting if you have a small furnance for the worm gear. As soon as finish the henhouse and other pressing projects will start working on these kind of things
 
Sticks said:
I like this idea a lot. I may expand on this with a single bolt on the column with a no backlash split nut on the head so you don't have to worry about loosen, tighten.

It's a mill. Make a tab, bore it, thread it, split it, then install a jack screw in the top of the split tab to remove the backlash.

I may have a need to roll my head over 90* to bore a thing that will be problematic to stand on end. Want to get back to 0. Wish I had the skill and tooling to make a worm gear adj for the head rotation. Should have bought a knee mill.
Click to expand...
Angle and adjustable angle plates and sin plates.... I am not screwing with the head, I will figure out how to do the setup.



If you support Inheritance machining on Patrion there is a set of plans you can get to make the sin plate from him.
 
hey john of rosemount im thinking of auction of a3rd edition machinery hand book 1913 red cover deano rex electric seen last
 
For anyone reading this in the future. Lifting slings can be ordered from McMaster-Carr for short money.

www.mcmaster.com

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.
www.mcmaster.com www.mcmaster.com

Yes, I do have a set of the HF ones and have used them many times but they only offer one length.

If you’re in this hobby in the US and don’t already have a McMaster account you need one.

John
 
matthewsx said:
For anyone reading this in the future. Lifting slings can be ordered from McMaster-Carr for short money.

www.mcmaster.com

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.
www.mcmaster.com www.mcmaster.com

Yes, I do have a set of the HF ones and have used them many times but they only offer one length.

If you’re in this hobby in the US and don’t already have a McMaster account you need one.

John
Click to expand...
No I don’t have, shame on me ;)
 
With the purple 6 foot straps from Horror Fright, i use both, and use 2x4 or 2x6 scraps under and on each side of the head when moving my PM 940 with a 2 ton HF shop crane.
I remember seeing where one owner bolted a bracket to either side of the head stock support, and had threaded a bolt through the bracket to reach the headstock, so could loosen one, tighten the other, to tram.
 
verbotenwhisky said:
Angle and adjustable angle plates and sin plates.... I am not screwing with the head, I will figure out how to do the setup.



If you support Inheritance machining on Patrion there is a set of plans you can get to make the sin plate from him.
Click to expand...
it is a large casting that has draft on both ends, and may actually be taller than my Z height. Don't know yet.

Future project. Might turn into a lathe project.
 
So: Guys I said a while back that I would share some photos and info on mods to my Mill, a PM940V-PDF. Forgive the mess, it is what happens when you operate in limited space.

Mill 1.jpg




Mill 2.jpg



The Mods I have made to it are simple, I got rid of the Mud flap on front and replaced it with an accordion cover, I had to extend the shaft for the Y axis crank by 3.5" to provide enough space to do so. I built an additional section of arm to support and move the DRO out toward the from of the machine for ease of access while operating it; and, the simplest modification was the stick on white board so I can jot info down while working. I had to replace a set of bearings for the drive pullies due to a mistake I made, however the bearings I replace were having issues and I replaced them with Timken's.

I normally do not keep the rotational plate under the vise but I am currently working on a project for which it was useful.
 
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