I am brand new to CNC, only about 1-2 weeks of ownership experience and 1 completed project under my belt, I own a Journeyman and need some help.
I was recently instructed to “tram” my machine, after a lengthy google search I now understand WHAT the tramming is and what it affects, The issue is that I cannot find a very good video covering the topic. I went on the 1F you tube and didnt see anything, while eaiting for a response on here I will go back and recheck.
Have you surfaces your spoilboard yet? If so how smooth did it come out? I still haven’t trammed my 1F after almost 2 years because it’s not very far off. I use a 2 3/8" diameter surfacing bit and there’s a ridge of maybe 1 or 2 thousands of an inch due to the spindle not being perfect. It hasn’t caused me any issues. But I only work with wood.
My advice for new people is get some seat time and enjoy the machine. Down the road when you have a much better feel for what matters to you then do things like upgrades and tramming. It’ll make a lot more sense.
I do not do my spoiled board yet, and that’s actually half true because I did the first one and while learning I annihilated the poor thing so I decided to replace a soil board now that I have an understanding of how my 1F works with a spoil board file
So I replaced my spoil board and have decided against resurfacing initially because I want to see how far, if any, a tramming or router is off.
I like the concept of “having fun” with the machine, I’ve been creating some awesome products on Vcarve and once I get the product development for our ecomm site completed I will devote hours of my time to playing around with the unit.
Thank you for chiming in, I appreciate the support
FWIW, I have a WoodWorker and have yet to tram it (had it since March and several projects). Mine is mounted on the QCW frame and I have a sheet of 3/4 MDF mounted on top of the MDF slats on the QCW. I am sure it is not perfect, but I have yet to have a project where I thought I needed to tram it. If I did, I would likely follow Mitz vid, or the new Mark Lindsay one here Tram Vid. Only I would grab a piece of glass for my flat surface and not that granite block. Welcome to the community!
if you are looking for something about tramming, it might be worth to first click here.
Generally, before ensuring the perpendicularity of the milling motor’s shaft towards worksurface (also called “tramming the router”), it is absolutely necessary to first ensure that your machine is not twisted, because if it still is, tramming the router and surfacing the wasteboard will help nothing, because it will inevitably lead to a twisted wasteboard and to always twisted results after each machining of a workpiece.
Thank you very much for your email, Lindsey is great and I follow Kyle @learnyourcnc, both very intelligent individuals.
I will tram my machine to say I did, but not sure it needs it, I will document all my measurements to confirm the suspicion of this issue being related to the tramming in the hopes of being able to pay it forward someday.
I recommend surfacing your spoilboard manually. If you have a joypad it’s real easy. It’s also a nice way to get use to have to use the joypad. You’ll get use to using the speed buttons as well as how the direction buttons work. You can even learn how to disable and enable the X and Y axis buttons. If you want to get tricky you can even learn how to do manual commands with the software.
