{"id":7649,"date":"2023-04-28T06:31:58","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T13:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/?p=7649"},"modified":"2023-04-28T06:32:02","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T13:32:02","slug":"how-to-tram-a-cnc-spindle-router","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/how-to-tram-a-cnc-spindle-router\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Tram a CNC Spindle \/ Router"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"top\" \/>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wP0vGhGectg?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Video link: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/wP0vGhGectg\">How to Tram an Avid CNC<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When you build a CNC the spindle or router may not be perfectly aligned to the table. You have to tram it, or align it to the axis that it will move along. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is one of the most accurate ways to do it; you need a dial indicator and a flat surface, such as a granite surface block or a piece of glass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While I discuss tramming it with my Avid CNC, the process will work with any CNC machine, Phantom CNC, Laguna, Shop Sabre, Camaster Stinger, ShopBot, X-carve, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tools Used<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3Aoa7Gq\">Dial Indicators<\/a> (Amazon)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3mWZLdG\">Granite Surface Plate<\/a> (Amazon)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3LnY9mI\">Thickness Feeler Gauge<\/a> (Amazon)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In the above list, I only own the thickness feeler. I bought my dial indicator from ENCO, which is now <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mscdirect.com\/\">MSC<\/a>. I highly recommend searching MSC for some of these products; they sell a variety of machining tools, and the quality varies from cheap to high quality precision. Almost any dial indicator will due &#8211; it needs to read .001&#8243; and have a magnetic base.  A 0.0001&#8243; indicator would let you get a little more precision, but probably isn&#8217;t necessary for wood working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Materials<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/40wkuCP\">Shims for the spindle<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Or use aluminum foil<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Or aluminum foil tape (available at Home Depot or Lowes in the HVAC section)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I wish I would have bought some shims, and I&#8217;m going to order a set for the next time I tram my spindle. I used aluminum foil tape, which worked, but doesn&#8217;t allow precisely shimming as well as actual machinist shims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Process<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I cover my process in the video, but the concept is easy: You setup the dial indicator on a fixed position along the spindle. You jog the machine to three corners of the flat surface (the granite plate) and shim the surface up until the dial indicator reads the same value at each of the three points. It is now perfectly aligned with the x\/y plane of the machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You then move the dial indicator to the spinning part of the spindle, and swing it around, arcing around on the surface plate. You will no longer jog the machine. You shim the spindle and adjust it until it reads the same values when swinging around the surface plate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Verification<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you have it trammed, you can follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.avidcnc.com\/support\/instructions\/machineSetup\/levelingSquaringAndTramming\/#spindlerouter-tramming\">Avid&#8217;s Excellent Directions<\/a> to see how well it is aligned. You basically make cuts along one axis (say the X-axis) to check the tramming in the opposite axis (say the Y-axis), and use a wide bit. If it isn&#8217;t trimmed right the cut will have a slight lip on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Other Ways<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I should also mention the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edgetechnologyproducts.com\/pro-tram-system-01-000-09-000\/\">Edge Tech Pro Tram System<\/a>.  It&#8217;s essentially two dial indicators that let you read the side values at the same time. I don&#8217;t own this tool, but for around $100 it makes the process a lot easier. I find it not very useful to buy a specific tool when I can use a more generic dial indicator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you build a CNC the spindle or router may not be perfectly aligned to the table. You have to tram it, or align it to the axis that it will move along. This is&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/how-to-tram-a-cnc-spindle-router\/\">[read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[285,210],"class_list":["post-7649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-woodworking","tag-avid-cnc","tag-cnc"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Spindle-Tramming-thumb.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7649"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7652,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7649\/revisions\/7652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}