# Tramming With Your Quill DRO



## BobWarfield (Feb 9, 2008)

I came up with a new procedure for tramming my mill the other day that sped things up for me. First, here's my tramming rig:







Indicol, Interapid indicator, 1-2-3 blocks to clear the vise and NIST-certified Tram thumper behind the RHS 1-2-3 block (LOL). Someday I'll whip up a tramming bar, but this has been working reasonably well. 

I don't know why, but suddenly I got the idea to start using my Quill DRO to turn this rig into a height gage. Many of you will know that you can make a height gage more sensitive by sticking a DTI out there instead of the scribe--as soon as that needle moves even slightly, you know you've touched the gage to the top. 

Same thing here, crank the quill up, position the DTI over the 1-2-3 block, crank the quill down until you see the needle on the DTI move. Now zero the Quill DRO. 

Rotate the DTI over to the other 1-2-3 block. Lower down until the needle just kicks. Since you zeroed the other side, your quill DRO now tells you exactly how far off the tram is. Bump the mill head in with some light taps until you have reduced the DRO reading to exactly 1/2 of what it was. 

You can cycle back and forth between the 1-2-3 blocks until you have it as close as you'd like, but after two cycles this was my reading (I called it done at that point):






Lots of ways to tram, but this sure worked out nice and fast for me.

If you have a tram bar with a plunger indicator, this procedure ought to work out great:






You don't have to read the indicator when its back is to you, just reach around and zero it and work from the side you can read on.



Best,

BW


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