Head out of alignment

[Marcel Thibodeau]

OK, some moths ago I did something stupid. I left a small piece of melamine on the table while doing a flycut, it wasn't a total disaster or anything but it did put the head out of alignment. After a call to Thermwood I got it fixed by loosening the 4 allen head bolts and adjusting the head back to zero. No sweat. Now though, every time a piece moves on the table and gets shot out by the router I have to adjust the head. Even the smallest thing will move it where as before it didn't move for years. Is there anything I can do to prevent that plate from shifting? I don't want to over tighten the bolts because they are just in aluminum and I don't want to make things worse. I tighten them as much as I can by hand with a ratchet and then use a snipe to give it once more pull.

[Clint Buechlein]

Marcel,

Everyone has their own idea of what "tight enough" is for a bolt. In the case of those four large bolts, the aluminum plate the bolts thread into has steel threaded inserts in it so you can go fairly tight on them.

It would be worth though the next time you need to re-tram the head, take the spindle completely off. The plate that the spindle attaches to has four T-nuts on the back side. Four smaller bolts go through the first aluminum plate into the T-Nuts on the back of the spindle. Those bolts may have come loose causing some issue as well.

-Clint-

[Marcel Thibodeau]

Well I just got through the process again, and tightened everything up a bit more than i usually would. The head is zeroed and I think it will stay that way unless there is a pretty severe spin out. Next time I'll take the plate off and check those t-bolts. Thanks Clint