metalmagpie
Titanium
- Joined
- May 22, 2006
- Location
- Seattle
I have a little drill press I just cleaned up and put new bearings, belts and motor in. This is what it looks like:
I restore Taiwanese drill presses from time to time just because I like to do it. I think this one will be the last one, though, and I plan to keep it for now.
The table can rotate, obviously. The combination of table rotation about the spindle axis and the whole table mechanism including rack swiveling about the column allow any point on the table to be brought under the spindle axis. You can also loosen a bolt underneath and tilt the table left and right.
I want to tram the table, i.e. make its surface perpendicular to the spindle axis. It's easy to get it correct in the left-right direction because that's just adjusting the table tilt. I had been adding shims to correct the tram in the direction of the long axis of the head (in/out). Since I've been learning to scrape, it now seems to me I should be able to scrape two mating parts and thus bring the table into tram.
My problem is I don't know how to accurately measure out-of-tramness on the parts involved. The table has an integral round boss on the bottom which fits into a support arm. I could make a round piece the same diameter as that boss, put it into the table support arm, and measure between it and the column low and high to see if there's an error. But once I take the table support arm off the machine, I don't know how to scrape its mating surface flat and perpendicular to the column.
Anyone have any ideas? I can post more pictures.
metalmagpie
I restore Taiwanese drill presses from time to time just because I like to do it. I think this one will be the last one, though, and I plan to keep it for now.
The table can rotate, obviously. The combination of table rotation about the spindle axis and the whole table mechanism including rack swiveling about the column allow any point on the table to be brought under the spindle axis. You can also loosen a bolt underneath and tilt the table left and right.
I want to tram the table, i.e. make its surface perpendicular to the spindle axis. It's easy to get it correct in the left-right direction because that's just adjusting the table tilt. I had been adding shims to correct the tram in the direction of the long axis of the head (in/out). Since I've been learning to scrape, it now seems to me I should be able to scrape two mating parts and thus bring the table into tram.
My problem is I don't know how to accurately measure out-of-tramness on the parts involved. The table has an integral round boss on the bottom which fits into a support arm. I could make a round piece the same diameter as that boss, put it into the table support arm, and measure between it and the column low and high to see if there's an error. But once I take the table support arm off the machine, I don't know how to scrape its mating surface flat and perpendicular to the column.
Anyone have any ideas? I can post more pictures.
metalmagpie