Carve King Alignment Feedback

[thejollyllama]

I've really been enjoying my Carve King so far and have been having a great time learning more about CAD and CAM. Now that I'm becoming more comfortable with the software side of things, I noticed some inconsistencies when cutting harder materials and started reading up on how to tram the spindle.

When I actually began measuring the deviation with a test indicator, I realized my spindle was out much further than I'd expected. It seems like this more than a gap I can just shim, so I think I may have had some issues with alignment when putting the machine together. Based on the pictures I've shared, does anyone have any ideas on how I can dial in the machine better? I spent an hour or so loosening and tightening screws, v-wheels, etc. to try pulling everything into alignment, but have had pretty minimal success thus far. Any help would be much appreciated!

Alignment Pics

[rcferguson]

For side-to-side tram you can loosen the two screws that hold the router clamp to the Z plate and rock it to one side or the other until you get it trammed that way. For front to back , you can make very small changes by loosening the screw that holds the router in the clamp and twisting the router forward or backward before tightening the screw back up. For bigger changes you may have to put a shim between the bottom or top edge of the router clamp  and the Z plate. I bought a box of steel shim assortment... 1 mil, 2 mil, 3 mil 5 mil and 10 mil, and just use scissors to cut pieces the size I need.

I believe the last time I trammed it I used a 2 mil piece just under the bottom edge a few millimeters as seen here:

After you tram it, you'll want to set up a spoil board and surface it so that it is level with respect to the router in all directions. Then tram it again the the new spoil board. That is if you are looking for a few thousandths accuracy. If you don't need it that accurate then the second tram probably isn't necessary.

[thejollyllama]

Thanks a ton for all the advice from your post. I ended up pulling apart a $5 feeler gauge from Harbor Freight and shimming under the Z plate until I got it within a few thou. It turns out that I didn't need to shim as much as I thought and the individual pieces of the gauge were a perfect fit right under the the mounting screws. I gotta say getting access to the screws wasn't a whole lot of fun, but I managed to make it work without pulling the whole Z plate apart. Do you periodically continue to tram the spindle or can I expect it maintain the position now that it's set?

[rcferguson]

Mar 15, 2019 4:59:10 GMT thejollyllama said:

Thanks a ton for all the advice from your post. I ended up pulling apart a $5 feeler gauge from Harbor Freight and shimming under the Z plate until I got it within a few thou. It turns out that I didn't need to shim as much as I thought and the individual pieces of the gauge were a perfect fit right under the the mounting screws. I gotta say getting access to the screws wasn't a whole lot of fun, but I managed to make it work without pulling the whole Z plate apart. Do you periodically continue to tram the spindle or can I expect it maintain the position now that it's set?

My experience exactly. Those screws are a bear... you need a really good long, narrow shaft Phillips head screw driver to turn  those things from the back, and a lot of playing around loosening and tightening until you get it just right. I find one you get it trammed pretty good then in the future all you need to do is loosen the router in the clamp and tweak it left/right/forward/backward to dial it back in if it gets a little out.

[Bruce]

Traming your machine is a tough and tedious thing to do. But once you get it dialed in and everything is tight you should be good to go.