After tightening up everything on my S5P 2x4 and starting to tram the spindle, I find that my yaw is good, only about .002" out of tram. The nod is awful - 0.03" forward lean. Every search I’ve done here and every YT video on tramming says the only way to fix nod is with shims, but I’ve not found a single video so far that actually show how and where to shim. I’ve seen references to using aluminum foil, or to repurpose a set of feeler-gauge blades. OK – but where? Where do the shims go on the Z-carriage?
Also, that amount of nod seems pretty high – does that surprise anybody? I recently had to replace my entire HDZ because my original one was jamming when at the top of the z-travel. Could I have done something during the installation of the new HDZ that cause the nod?
The shims are applied at the router mount to the Z axis. Depending on which way your router leans shims at the top would make the front of the spindle go down. Shims at the bottom would make the router front go up. You dont need much because of the distance from the Z axis back plate and the router bit so brass shims would work but folded aluminum is likely sitting in your kitchen drawer already. Plus the aluminum is more flexible because you can just fold and fold to get the required thickness.
The brass shims come in set sizes.
I used an SST 6" mini-mill tram dial indicator which I just bought a week or so ago. I’ve had my S5P for about six months and, not knowing any better (this is my first CNC machine), didn’t realize that one of the first things I needed to do was tram my setup. I’ve been getting really mixed results with carving but just figured it was my inexperience and lack of knowledge about what I was doing. I finally came across some YT videos on tramming and got the dial indicator to see if that would give me a clue.
For example I bolt down a sacrificial MDF plate and surface it in the machine using a 1/4" endmill with a small stepover. Others use a piece of float glass that they shim to be machine level.
Making sure you have a level surface to tram to will really effect the results.
I trammed to my spoil board which is still in pretty good shape. I noticed that I had a problem when I faced a piece of stock with a mcfly cutter a couple of days ago and got a series of ridges, almost like little ramps that ran up to the stepover line of the cutter.
I think it very likely that I just don’t know what I’m doing still since I don’t even know what you mean by the term “machine level”. I don’t know what reference surface I’m leveling to.
I just got my Shapeoko about 2 months ago. I first surfaced the spoil board with a 1.5" surfacing bit. I then put a machinist stone over the spoil board then used the SST dial indicator and got it as close as I could. I still have faint ridges on my spoil board. When I trammed I used copper shims between the spindle clamp and the HDZ plate. I think I had to put a .005" shim at the bottom of the spindle mount.
I do mine in two steps. I adjust the motor mount to align the tool with the Z axis motion.
Then to tram I shim between the Z axis assembly & the X axis slide.
A - If you leveled the spoilboard with a larger endmill (like a 1" surfacing bit) there may be ridges.
B - It may not be fully level if it’s swelled or anything since it was leveled.
Machine level is just the term for the bed being leveled to the X and Y axis.
No problem. Once you get a lot of the concepts and terminology that are fairly unique to CNC machines, it gets fairly simple. We’ve all been there for sure.
I’m talking with C3D tech support, but I thought I’d ask here also: when tramming the spindle, don’t I need a known-flat reference surface to tram to? Certainly, that’s not my spoil board. Are the aluminum plates/T-tracks that the spoil boards sit between sufficiently “flat” for purposes of tramming-out any nod or yaw if I sit a granite surface plate across a few of them?
If you surface your wasteboard, then you can tram on it even with the ridges if you put something of consistent thickness on it.
A surface plate is usually a bad choice because there’s no need for the thickness of it to be consistent, only that one face be flat. My admittedly cheap surface plate has saw marks on the back of it.
A piece of glass is likely flat enough for a Shapeoko class machine.
A surfaced wasteboard is the best place to start, even if it’s not perfectly flat.
Your frame, crossrails, etc… may or may not be perfectly parallel to the XY plane of motion.
Surface the wasteboard. Check for flatness. A straightedge held corner to corner both ways.
If it’s twisted, shim the machine to get it flat & surface again.
Depending on the tram, your surface may look like one of these…
Isn’t most commonly available glass “float glass” which is quite consistent in thickness/flatness? Putting a sheet of glass down on a clean/trammed surface should yield a very consistent surface — maybe check w/ a granite surface plate along the edges?
I finally broke down and purchased a dial indicator (modest one from Lee Valley) and am debating on getting a Mitutoyo Dial Test Indicator from McMaster-Carr (so as to be confident of not getting a counterfeit) — after that I have to decide if the chunks of quartz countertop I salvaged from the side of the road are sufficiently flat, if I should try lapping a set of 3 of them to get them to be flatter, or if I want to invest in at least a granite surface plate from Woodcraft the next time they go on sale… or, if I want to go whole hog and get a granite triangle like @wmoy
I don’t think “most” is float glass. I bought a piece that supposedly was but could see my dial indicator bouncing around. I ended up switching to a granite plate that was designed as a flat surface within a tiny variance. It’s a designed as a flat surface do honing chisels. I wish it was half as thick since it’s stupid heavy.
I use the SST mini tram gauge.
I happens to watch that video from Winston last night. I wondered where he ran across that triangle.
