Hey all,
I just finished surfacing my SO5 4x2’s hybrid table and found that tramming is needed.
How can I do that the easiest way possible? Are there detailed instructions for SO5 Pro tramming?
The accuracy I need is a wood carving, at least now. Like coasters, MDF, cutting boards …
I tried a home made tramming gauge but just wasnt happy with it. I ended up buying the SST mini tramming gauge and a piece of glass that was supposedly super flat, used for blade sharpening.
That worked pretty well and the. When I was happy with the results I flattened the spoilboard again.
I have a super flat piece of granite also used for blade sharpening but it was too tall to get the gauge in the spindle and move it. Genius me didn’t think of raising the router in the mount.
I took someone else’s advice on the forum WRT to the front to back adjustment of the router and got a cheap set of feeler gauges to shim where appropriate.
I have the Pro with Z Plus. Not sure that the adjustment for front/back on the 5 is the same.
Thanks! Could you please give links to the tramping gauge?
Also, does it work with any kind of glass? Not sure if the small hardware store near me has any:)
And “front to back adjustment”. Not sure I understand this part.
Thanks!
tramming is over rated… just use a solid square.
Over rated perhaps, but when you are new to the machines and want to get it to be the best it can be then it is a good way.
Before I did this I kept thinking that there was something not right with the machine.
Certainly others have used a square or much cheaper home made gauge, but in the grand scheme of things the price was not significant and gave me peace of mind.
I have seen a lot of other posts where people say just to get it as good as you can, but none that really articulate what how good it could be.
Gauge:
Glass:
Thanks. Do you think square will give you enough precision to make the Z axis perpendicular to the hybrid table?
Also. I need detailed instructions for setting HDZ. I want to get feeler gouges, but I do not know how to do this.
Great! Thanks. Now I need to understand the process in detail 
yes pick up a cheap 6 in. solid square that machinist use. use the square on O.D. of the spindle case.
Check this video out.
And search on the forum. There are a lot of posts talking about the process.
I will check it out.
Now need to understand how to adjust the HDZ assembly.
Is there an instruction for that?
no need to adjust… simply align spindle in x direction with a square and go. This tramming nonsense is WAY over hyped. You are machining wood
Sure. I am not going to put in a lot of time and effort just want to get rid of the ridges on the waste board.
The problem is that I am looking at HDZ and scratching my head because I can not figure out how to adjust it. The spindle is mowing in the mount up and down, and I do not see a way to rotate it left or right. Also HDZ attaching to X plate on fixed pins so no way to rotatet it there too.
I might be missing something obvious, but…
I’ve trammed 7 or 8 Shapeokos. 
I use a simple 3D printed arm with two 1/4" pins sticking out of it. One for the spindle, one as a scraper for the wasteboard. Here is my preferred method after 7 years:
1 - Secure a piece of MDF to the wasteboard that is wide/deep enough for your tramming tool. I like surfacing this instead of the wasteboard as it keeps me from having to surface the wasteboard twice.
2 - Surface that with a 1/4" endmill with a raster cut and low stepover. Yes, you may have ridges, but the average height will be flat enough for the use.
3 - Use the tool and a piece of paper to feel the tram. I always do fore/aft (Y) first and use shims in between the X carriage and Z plate to get that dialed in. I have shim stock on-hand, but slices of aluminum can work well too.
4 - Keep the bolts that mount the Z plate to the X carriage barely snug. You can then tram X by tapping side-to-side on the Z plate.
You have to feel when an axis scrapes the same on both sides. This method works fast, easy, and cheap for me. Tighten the whole thing down. My SO5 actually trammed the fastest and easiest out of all my machines.
Here’s a couple of write-ups I have done about it:
Thanks a lot! I’ll play with that!
Sure, if you like sanding.
Some of us, however, are used to finishes left by a smoothing plane and card scraper and are morally opposed to the annoyance of detail sanding of any sort.
The 30 minutes spent with a tramming gauge and a $5 set of feeler gauges to get it within about 0.0005” is time well spent.
if you can hold +/- .0005 I will hire you in a second as a real CNC machinist
I was concerned that the spindle shaft may not be perfectly aligned with the outside of the casing.
it is… B.T.W. the spindle run out and play on a trim router is a lot more than .0005 especially after using for a while. Upgrade to a VFD quiet, smooth, a lot more accurate and r11 collets.
Sure but my plan at least was to have the machine for a while and determine that I liked the activity enough to justify the cost of the spindle upgrade. I bought my machine used so that VFD up charge is a pretty significant percentage of overall cost.
I do like it and would like to do that upgrade but it would be nice to make enough on the machine to pay for it so it may take me a little while. Also would love the 5 as an upgrade over the Pro. I guess the VFD is a sensible step though as it will work in the 5 if I can work that purchase in later.
Thanks a lot for the links to your post on FB. VERY helpful.
In my case, I only needed to adjust a little tilt in the X direction.