I upgraded to the 1.2KW spindle and with that I bought the “mini tram” from SST and decided to check it and get it right.
I found that in the X direction it was off by about 0.01" and loosened the four screws to hold the spindle coupler (i dont know what to call it) on - and was able to tap it into place with a hammer.
In the Y direction, I found it a bit over 0.02" and had to shim it quite a bit, at first using folded up aluminum foil but eventually found a left over plate for laser engraving that was just over 0.02 thick and shoving it behind the Z carriage on the bottom side, but now the machine is within 2 thou either direction, and I’m gonna call that good I think
Is this about normal, or is there something im missing?
When I did mine I had it +/-0.003" on either side. I called it good, but I’m pretty much exclusively wood. Something I did note is that if I leaned on my table, or pushed down on the z axis it was enough to register on the dial indicator.
I’d suggest you not get too lost in the numbers, I’d test it at tha reading and see how it looks, without the proper flat plates the reading isn’t super trustworthy regardless. You also have runout and collet variance that can affect it. I have the same tramming tool and like it well enough, I use the tool to get it as close as I can then test it on some scrap wood with a 2.5" flattening bit, if I can’t see or feel a ridge on either axis it’s good enough. Using the widest bit you have to check it with helps by exaggerating the out of “tramness”. What’s hard to see/feel on a 1/4 bit jumps out fast on a 2" one.