Tramming Machanism for Mini Mill

Hey All,

So, I got to tramming my Harbor Freight 44991 mini mill table last night (spindle to X-axis basically) and I used these two items to do it:

The Dial Test Indicator I used:

https://littlemachineshop.com/produc...ory=1319044103

The Holder I used:

Test Indicator Holder, Professional Quality - LittleMachineShop.com

Now... I have got to say that I got this holder all assembled and the thing is just not a good piece of equipment. LMS has great products and I have dropped some serious coin on this site in the past 2 months. But... This DTI holder is very sub par. The whole thing moves and I just don't trust the readings I am getting... I reamed down all the connections on it and the whole holder moves very easily at the connection points and is just a sub par piece of equipment in my opinion after using it last night....

I also want to be able to use a full sized Dial Indicator as the Dial Test Indictor there does not have a wide range of movement and is lazer small / precise needle. I was noticing that I was bottomed out on it a couple times when starting tramming and was getting false readings that way too...

So! I am going to use this method found here at this site to tram my mini mill:

How I tram my mini-mill | MachinistBlog.com

I need one question answered here... What is the tool held in the spindle here on that link? The vertical tool that is holding the perpendicular bar?? This would be a great article if this was explained... I just have not seen a good way yet to tram the mini mill. I want something that chucks up and doesn't move... Maybe bending a piece of bar stock even and chucking that up... But I still am clueless how to attach this dial indicator to that successfully...

Seems like an easy thing to do, but as a newbie machinist, this has left me scratching my head...

Thanks in advance for any replies. Great site!

Drill bar crossed drilled to hold the holder

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk

First of all it is good practice to tram and to perfect your machine and set up. It will pay off in the results. I would first tram the spindle to the column. Then the spindle to the table.

The methods shown in your link are typical. The tool is as Alax7 describes. After you get a few holders, you end up disassembling them to make different set ups. If you read the comments in the link you gave, one of the posters refers to using a disc brake rotor from a car to sweep. This does work well and you can buy 1 for under 30 bucks at any auto parts. Or a piece of polished granite floor tile. A flooring store will give you 1 if you arent picky about it.