Looking for some smooth right angle steel

[robotsnsuch]

I need som 48"" long 3/4" steel angle stock for my V Bearings. The stuff at Home Depote is real rough.

Any one have a good souce for some thats sutible for my rails?

[CarveOne]

Originally Posted by robotsnsuch I need som 48"" long 3/4" steel angle stock for my V Bearings. The stuff at Home Depote is real rough. Any one have a good souce for some thats sutible for my rails?

What Home Depot, Lowes, and Tractor supply sells is hot rolled "welding steel" that has a factory mill scale on it. It can be sanded down to the bare steel with a little effort. An angle grinder with flap sanding disk is quicker.

Cold rolled steel angle is what you are looking for and will only be found at local and online steel suppliers. It is formed into angles from flat strips and is normally found on steel shelving units (has punched holes in it) and in Uni-Strut. You can buy it at Lowes and Home Depot. The drawback is that it twists fairly easily. It looks like this.

You will be better off using the much stiffer hot rolled variety and sanding off the scale if you want to make bearing trucks.

CarveOne

[keebler303]

Or you could just spend the money and get the right stuff:
V-Guide Systems, Rails, Wheels, & Bushings | Cam Roller Technology

Matt

[CarveOne]

You're correct. I had roller bearings and trucks on the brain and misread the post.

CarveOne

[keebler303]

Angle iron can work for v rollers but you will see significant wear in a relatively small amount of time. If you want it to last (and be accurate), you want something hardened and ground.

Matt

[thoug]

There are a lot of systems out there using hot rolled steel angle for the linear rails using v-bearings. Look at the Mechmate and Joe's Hybrid 4x4 models. I'm just finishing up a 2x4 build based on 8020 aluminum and using hot rolled angle for bearing rails. Assuming you want to use the edge of the angle, and not the angle vertex, you can easily make a smooth bearing surface with a long file and 15 minutes. I secured my angle to the edge of the bench and used an angled guide block to help establish a consistent angle for the file. It only takes a couple dozen strokes to make a nice smooth bearing surface on each side of the angle. I followed up the file with a few passes of progressively finer grit sand paper to polish the edges.

Todd

[tpworks]

Or, you could buy a grinder skate that is used to make the rails for the mechmate,
Rail Grinding Skate
I purchased one myself and am working on making my own V-rails from 2" x2" x 1/4" hot rolled angle. The scale will come off with a little work. I have been using a wire cup for the grinder, takes a little effort but the finish is really clean and polished.

[robotsnsuch]

I like the ideal of making a grinding skate as I am into my fourth build and know I will put it to good use. I have a dewalt angle grinder what kind of wheels do they use?

Has any one used one of these skates?

[tpworks]

For $36.00 I couldn't do a better job not to mention the time.
might have to make an adapter for the dewalt.
It was made to fit a bosch but I bought a cheap Royobi and it fits with the use of some spacers and 4mm x 25mm screws.
8 of these bearings with 2 concentric and 2 eccentric bushings for adjustment (I made my own) the same one used for the #3 v bearing because it was designed to fit the Mechmate after you are finished with the grinding.
6001-2RS Bearing 12x28x8 Sealed:Ball Bearings:VXB
maybe you meant grinding wheels,
standard grinding disks for the bevel and cutoff disks for ripping the angle down. I personally bought a metal cutting circular saw from harbor freight and ripped down the angle with it just tonight, saved a whole lot of time well worth the 80 bucks I spent on it.
Check out the Mechmate forum and search for "skate"
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