Not sure why Taig chose to mount the column the way they did but it's horrible. Like trying to hold a broom straight out with your hand by holding only one inch of the tip of the handle.
Anyway, I'm having problems keeping the column straight up. I keep tramming and of course any collision on the x axis automatically requires a re-tramming. I normally don't do aggressive cuts that might tilt the column but I'd like to know that I can experiment with deeper cuts.
Most recently I've been trying to machine some cheap vises more square (I gave up and ordered some toolmaker vises) and a double-check found my column not square again and I didn't even do anything to it! I had it square to < .001" on an 8" span and it was like .003" off (sorry about mixing my units).
My normal method to square is to put in my tramming fixture and tap the column back and forth until it's good, then tighten some and repeat. I think this might a problem because knocking the column back and forth seems like a good way to grind up particles that act like ball bearings, so now I need to take the column off and clean it up. If I could take apart the enclosure and do it gently, ONCE, that would be ok.
I've seen some pictures of others who've made external steel rigs to hold the column rigid but that is not practical in my setup. My CNC is on a custom table in a custom sound-and-chip-proof enclosure I made, in my dining room. (yes, I'm not married, and this ensures I never will be
. But I now have an adult toybox that I can run at night, complete with fog-buster-style sprayer and built-in air gun.
Any experienced people here who can comment on my situation? They way I've boxed my mill in an enclosure makes it hard to get to the nut in the back so this is becoming a dreaded issue. What I need is an anti-anti-seize compound
thanks
(been thinking about sharing the whole project, which took me a year to design and put together, but I made some bad choices and other quirky choices I don't want to have to defend, but it would be fun to share all the work I put into it. Its' in my dining room, in an apartment. My landlord saw it but didn't complain because it is so well contained. Although I did hide the compressor...)