a couple of questions regarding the drive nut material...
it appears that the material of choice would be delrin; in reading through a bunch of posts, i found one or two questions asking about using nylon nuts (like you could find at the ace hardware wall-o-nuts-and-stuff), but don't recall seeing any answers pro or con...
since all the posts appear to be about using delrin nuts, i guess i can infer that the nylon nuts are not suitable for whatever reason; is that a correct assumption ?
*besides* delrin or nylon, are there other materials that have been found to be usable, or just that delrin is the combination of most economical, most available, most machinable material, most suitable for the job ? (i'm thinking of using some of the scrap starboard or other high density plastic stuff i have in hand...)
now, for a mechanical question...
*if* at least part of the reason that 'regular' steel nuts are not used, is that there is too much tolerance in their machining such that they slop back and forth on the threads, how is it tapping threads in (fill in the blank material) doesn't produce the same situation ?
...are the threads cut by a hand tap to closer tolerances than mass produced nuts, or something ?
...or is it just the nature of the plastic-like materials that they 'rebound'/'swell' after the threads are cut, such as to produce a tighter mating of rod and nut ?
i guess this is mostly just curiousity, since i imagine i will end up using the tried and true delrin, as you experienced CNC-ers and machinists have found it to be a suitable material for the task...
oh yeah, one last one, assuming delrin is the material, do you lubricate the threaded rod with something, or does it run 'dry' ?
thoughts and speculations are appreciated...
charley
charleyy@alltel.net
eof