Strange Method Of Tramming A Mill Vise

[Highpower]

I have a 4" and 6" vice for my mill. Both are keyed. I lucked out with the 6" vice in that all I have to do is tap it to one side while tightening the mounting nuts and it comes out spot on every time. One problem though was that I always forgot which DIRECTION to tap on the vice. With my CRS disease I finally resorted to simply drawing a couple of arrows on the front of the vice to remind me.  

But the 4" is a different story. "Spot on" is floating somewhere in the middle of the slight clearance on the keys. I tried Tom's method right after he posted it and was blown away by it. Got it perfectly trammed indicated on the first try. I'm still thinking about trying to switch the keys around on that one though, or getting a different pair of keys to see if I can find that magic spot where the vice is spot on when it's tapped all the way to one side. Such is life for those of us who DON'T have a surface grinder.  

[Dr Stan]

I feel I must make a comment on the use of the word tramming.  Tramming is the process used to square up a vertical head to the table.  It's not the method used to align a vice on a mill.  That is simply indicating the vice.

[Highpower]

Sorry Stan. You are correct of course, but I pretty much got into the habit of 'going with the flow'. As long as everyone pretty much understands what is being talked about I try not to worry about it most of the time. Spelling, nomenclature, and grammar aren't at the top of my list of priorities I'm afraid. DANGEROUS misinformation needs to be dealt with obviously. But I get it.

I'm old enough now not to sweat the small stuff anymore. And it feels good!

[Dr Stan]

I'm retired and as such can blow off a lot of stuff, but when it comes to technical information I feel it's very important to be grammatically correct.  BTW, this is coming from someone who was introduced to a student's parents as the "professor who says more better".  At least I knew she'd paid attention which was my intent.  

[Umahunter]

I've also seen another device you basically get your vise trammed perfect then you have a piece of square stock that clamps on the vise with a rod on the left and right that go into another square that goes against the dovetails or column of your mill everything is tightened then you just install and quick tram was gonna post a screen grab but can't figure out how here is a link to the youtube video it's in  https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www...FRAOZ-swxJ

[TomG]

That's one I haven't seen before. It's similar to my idea of using a pin to center a rotary table or part on the spindle.

Tom

[Dr Stan]

Interesting. However I've aligned (that's the proper term) mill vises so many times I can do so with less time than it would take to find the alignment tool.