I want to test my XXL with a dial gauge to check the router is vertical to the board - and which may lead to flattening the top of the waste board.
I’ve seen a description somewhere on here (I think) but can’t seem to find it 
Any ideas, please?
Thanks
There’s a bunch of options out there.
Many revolve around the idea (pun intended) of mounting a dial gauge off center from the spindle and rotating it to see if the height it measures varies. If the mount is clamped in the spindle collet then you don’t need to worry about calibrating and levelling the dial gauge mount as whatever error it has rotates with it.
There’s shiny aluminium ones from tool stores and Amazon, other folks use a bit of wood. There are even nice collet mounting dial gauge holders which you can use for center finding and other tricks too.
There’s some pics of a nice one in this thread;
Here is my bit of 8mm aluminium round bar (you can use 1/4" too) with a bit of 3D printed plastic to hold the cutter (it would be easy to use wood in place of the plastic)
I step the Z axis down until I get about 0 on the dial, then rotate the spindle by hand - unplug it first and do not allow it to power up. I watch to see if the dial goes up or down as I sweep from left to right, that’s the side to side tram, then check front to back and that’s the front to rear tram.
It might be necessary to level the spoilboard first, tram and take a final skim once you’re level.
Yep, that’s what I’m trying to do.
I prefer analogue to digital and I understand the need for the off-set, but was looking for a solution with a guaranteed pair of opposing right angles and with a mount for the dial. The ones I looked at on Amazon seem to be really complicated affairs with knobs and threads all over the place! I much prefer simple!
Thanks, though @LiamN . I’ll take a closer look 
You mean something like
?
Something like that, yes. Given how often I’ll be using it, I’m reluctant to spend more than I need to - but I won’t use eBay under any circumstances.
I’m looking for a similar thing (or a single dial) in 
If you don’t want to make your own, here’s some options for things you can mount a standard DTI in;
https://www.machine-dro.co.uk/indicators-and-bases/clamps-and-bases/quill-and-spindle-clamps
The upside of those is that they also work for locating the centre of holes and such tasks.
Be careful to check what collet size(s) you can run and what the bore size of the adapter is though.
Or, you could save the frustration and go this route …
https://pwncnc.com/purchase/ols/products/traming-arm
… and visit Winston’s video here …
I got mine off Amazon for a good price after using my rewards points and it works great.
My first version was a 3d printed version of Winstons dowel pin setup but with my threaded table this dual gauge made it faster and easier.
I think I’ll go down this route - and I’ll let you know what design end up with.
Thanks again for everyone’s input!
I’m not telling you what to do, but I almost never buy a single use tool. This is my spindle tramming setup, and when I’m done, I use the indicator on the magnetic base that came with it to make precise set up on my machine when needed. It’s also a lot less money. 2B1S
So, why did I do this again…?
I’ve manufactured a tramming setup using a length of 6mm threaded bar, an ‘L’ shaped bracket and a 1/4" bolt. I’ve ordered a DTI which isn’t due until Monday, so thought I’d check the tramming with a square. Oops.
Firstly, the X and Y axes are level, determined bu using a spirit level, and confirmed with a digital level. awesome.
Using my ‘trammel’ I checked the spindle and, front to back, it’s great. Side to side? Not so much
The trammel indicates a 6mm difference in height between the left and right hand side, and I’m not sure where I can adjust this amount, given everything elese appears to be level. My assumption is the Z mounting.
Here are the photographs. Sorry about the rubbish measurements; I’ve had to mark them with a pen.
Left hand side:
Right hand side:
Context photos:
Any comments, please?
Thank you.
That seems like a terribly flexible guage. 
6mm seems like a bad number.
Concur w/ @CrookedWoodTex — I would suggest using something a bit less flexible.
As far as adjusting left–right it’s best to work from large–small:
A good first start is to just loosen all the bolts, push down at each point, then check for squareness and level — gently nudge things to get to square and level, go around gradually and pull and hold each point, then begin tightening bolts in a criss-cross fashion as one would do when changing a car tire.
Like Will says, that’s a bit of a wobbly measuring stick, I presume you already read the ebook section on setup and tramming?
https://shapeokoenthusiasts.gitbook.io/shapeoko-cnc-a-to-z/squaring
Guessing a bit at the length of the measuring stick, it looks like about 0.8 degrees off square which isn’t tiny but it’s not huge either given the amount of adjustment on the machine.
Did you try loosening the bolts holding the spindle mount to the Z plate and checking how much movement is available?
OK, I know where you’re all coming from with the wobbly stick bit, but there is no real weight on it - apart from it’s own - and moving it from left to right (or right to left!) doesn’t put any additional weight on it, surely? (To be fair, the context photos don’t show it very well. I’ll have a look to see if I’ve got any mild steel or aluminium bar and redesign it tomorrow). And although the indicated difference is 6mm, that’s only 3mm per side, so wouldn’t ‘rotating’ the Z plate a tad help? (as per @LiamN’s comment). There is a ‘tramming’ plate provided with the Z-Plus (I don’t know if there is for other machines), and I wonder if there’s any adjustment with that?
I spirit-levelled the baseboard (not the waste board), Y1, Y2 and X axes, and they were all level (Y2 was showing 0.1 degree, the Y1, X and waste board were all 0.0 degrees). Thinks: 
I might look at lifting the waste board off so I can check the machine for flatness. The waste board is 18mm ply, so I’m not overly confident that’s level.
I did check out the e-book section setup and tramming, which is where I thought the bar would help.
One other thing while we’re here: Whilst I was building the machine, there were warnings in the instructions about overtightening the screws when mounting the carriages on to the aluminium extrusions, so I was really careful about that, but when I was checking for tightness while carrying out this experiment, the screws weren’t really that tight, and I definitely checked them. Has anyone else experienced that, please?
Not yet, but the spindle mount is fixed to a trammel plate, which is then attached to the Z plate, so I’m wondering if there might be slightly more adjustment there?
If you have the tram plate then yes, that’s the thing to use, it has eccentric nuts to allow you to tram once the main bolts are loose I believe?
Ah, I thought that might be the case. It’s difficult to know if having the tram plate is a new thing or if everyone has it on their machines.
Thanks, @LiamN
A possible tramming error that might be introduced is that the photos show that you are using a “bolt” in the router end. That could introduce some error if it was bent a little, and the error could be dependent on how that bolt was tightened into the collet.
If the collet rotates with the whole assembly shouldn’t this cancel out as whatever angle error is present East will be the same when pointed West?
