Hi folks,

I've been working on the machine a lot and finally got to checking the tram on the mill head. The first thing I checked was to see how flat the table was...it's .002 out in the X direction across the short side of the table. Not great. I wasn't sure how to check the Y direction...other than traming.

So what did I find? Out of tram: Y rotation .007 / X rotation .018. (I'm not sure the correct nomeclature for this, but I mean rotation around the X axis etc.) I can understand .007 but .018? Okay, so bust out the shim stock. I managed to get the X rotation down to less than .0015, pretty decent. After some more shiming the Y rotation is still about .005. Figured I was getting close, only issue is shimming one side tends to screw up the other side.

For some reason I decided to run the mill head up and down at this point...only to find MAJOR binding and sticking. I thought I had bent the shafts or the mounting plate so I pulled out all the shims, re-tightened and discovered the mill head ran perfectly smooth. Soooo...it seems that I can probably get tramed well enough, I just won't be able to move the mill head up and down. Not quite super duper.

Any suggestions?

This machine would be great if they just paid a little bit of attention to quality control. I'd happily pay another 500 bucks for a machine that is straight. I could hardly care if the motors run at this point.