A big thanks to Luke from Malta for the perfect tramming tool he made for me.
00:00 – Intro
00:11 – Why tram?
00:48 – How I normally tram.
01:01 – Mail time!
01:31 – Drills
02:20 – Camlock back plate
02:53 – Clocks, and more clocks.
04:05 – The luxury tramming tools!
05:27 – Tramming the MAHO
08:36 – 3D printing a battery cover
09:27 – How do I adjust in Y?
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gift time
Not engraved, that looks sinker-EDM'd to me….
Cracking work Luke. What a hero!
Most use thin copper crush-washers with a metal filled stable epoxy like Moglice to mate casting surfaces. 😉 Check your gibbs for wear first, as scraping can be a pain.
Saggy bed looks like a common problem in these machines, I have 2 of them in quite good state and both beds are slanted by around 0.1mm. Both Z and X slides introduce some play, but tightening the gibs did not help, only make motors hum louder due to increased resistance. Shimming the bed is not a good solution, the rigidity and vibration damping gets worse with less contact area, and the result is an artificially lifted table.
The fastest and dirty solution would be to grind (and destroy) the table, which is probably perfectly perpendicular to it's mounting surface, or to attach some kind of middleman plate to the table and grind it.
You could also disassemble and check the Z slide. My X and Y axes look like new but the Z slide and the gib is a bit worn, scraping would help, but I have absolutely no experience in that matter and have decided to leave it as is for now.
Your Maho looks so great though it could be just gib tightening.
Super kind viewer!
stoneing the table is a myth only garage yotubers do
– an actual real machineist who never done it and never will
Cool shot of the streetcar in the intro!
Wonderfully made tramming head. Not to be a party pooper, I just never understood people's fascination with this dual indicator head. You have to make sure each indicator reads the same, which mean swinging it to the same spot, and zeroing them against each other. Using a single indicator (like your old method) to me seems more accurate, more foolproof, and no special tools required to use it. I don't know if this is only for hobbyists that like this dual head? I worked in a tool and die manual shop in the late 90's, and everyone there used a single indicator to tram the machines. I wonder if modern machine shops use this dual head system, or keep with the single head system. Edit to add, between uses, there is a chance the indicators will move. So I guess you have to re-check the zero each use. Just seems a lot more work than a single indicator.
Not that I am very familiar with all milling machines, but this deckel-style alignment is very prone to sagging tables IMO. The vertical flat/dovetail way is very far from the table mass, this generates a lot of leverage, the lower side of the vertical(Z-axis?) carriage wears more than the topside=sagging front.
I've read somewhere, the top-notch milling machines were made with a smidge of reverse-sag, still in the tolerance, to account for a bit of wear.
Even if you scrape the table, you cannot account for the uneven wear on the vertical ways.
Placing the leadscrews far from the mass of the table does not help either. On bigger machines, at least non-cnc, the leadscrew is usually right under the table mass.
I have a seldom-used manual MH500 too, though the vertical ways are worn a bit even on mine. The flaking is noticeably fainter than on the nonused surface area. Mine has tilting table, so not a real problem, but still.
Great channel donation Luke, tramming head looks great.
Thanks for sharing.
Best regards from the UK.
John.
The 3d prints look better, were you able to calibrate the e steps for the extruder motor?
Hi, please pardon my ignorance, but does this machine have some sort of clamp on each axis? If so, was the table clamped when tram was measured fore to aft? One more question, does "Luke" have a YouTube channel? Does he need another place to send some of his stuff? Just kidding. As always, an interesting video. Thanks!
The first thing I'd check would be the adjusment of the gibs – especially the Z axis. Given that your machine is ex-education and hasn't done many hours, it's unlikely that the slides are worn, but on old machines this is common and would show up like this. If the gibs are properly adjusted and there's no appreciable wear, then remove the table, stone all the surfaces remount and check again. If that's not fixed it check that the head isn't tilted forward due to foriegn matter under the mating surfaces – you'll need a test bar. If the tilt persists, then it's wear causing the geometry of the machine to be out. I'd shim rather than scrape the table. If you scrape the table to correct the machine's geometry it will not only vary over the travels but will trip-up you or a future owner if the machine's ways are remachined.
I'm mildly surprised that you don't have one of those bright orange plastic covered dead-blow mallets 😉
should be possible to fab a shim using the machine itself. at least if the worksurface is big enough:
get a thin piece of metal like 1mm or sth, surface the whole piece on the machine to be trammed, then use that piece as shim. it should have the perfect angle or am I missing sth?
Awesome gift. Looks absolutely beautiful👍🏻👌🏻🔥
Do check with a indicator on the head the difference between the front of the table and the back. It might be the head that is askew. Might be a chip there for you know.
This is all why adjusting the y is a bitch on a universal head. Can't measure with certainty without torquing all the bolts.
If the table is not adjustable, I would be tempted to use a large fly cutter to trim-tram it – so it is probably a good thing that I am nit allowed to have my own machine shop 😉
When checking the tram of the table, move the Y back and forth, don't rotate the spindle. You are now including the spindle leaning forward/backward and not just the tram of the table. I made that mistake and ended up making a kind of sawtooth pattern in the Y direction when taking parallel passes over X.
Did you tighten the bolts of the head before checking tram across Y axis? Also the tram (and table surface) needs to be exactly true to the Y-axis movement, should maybe check for that by sweeping an indicator over the table using the Y-axis before drawing conclusions
If you haven't… you need to watch this. Youtube-> Homemade DIY Small CNC Lathe posted by Awesome CNC Freak.
Did you stone that gouge in the table, sorry but had to say it,,,,ooooooooch Nice dials
Nice, Luke, very nice indeed! 👍 Have a good time in NZ, RSMP. The climate swap will doubtless be an improvement.
i think, you can grind or scrape the table surface itself
Hm, by checking the Y axis from back to front of the table, what does the clock show?