Tram Eliminator
© Frank
Ford 2004; Photos by FF
OK, I guess that's a bit misleading and arrogant sounding, but this little trick works for me in the land of "close enough for. . ."
On my little Rusnok mill, I get into cranking the head around to various angles and often I'm doing rather casual stuff. Not wanting to spend a lot of time aligning the head only to loosen it again right away, I made up this little tool. I pressed a disc of aluminum onto a piece of half inch drill rod, and turned the face of the disk on the lathe nice and flat with a recess in the center so it would bear only on the outer edge:
Now, with the head slightly loose, I simply crank the quill down until the disc seats flatly on the mill table. I keep pressing it down firmly as I tighten the head bolts, and presto, I've got a reasonable alignment in just a few seconds:
I wouldn't count on this method for serious work, of course, but it's great for the kind of quickie stuff I find myself doing frequently.