Making your own pillow blocks and Rail mounts?

[HuFlungDung]

Reid Tool supply also handles the aluminum extrusions. There are a ton of accessories for this stuff, including plastic lined slide blocks and stuff. Contact them for a catalogue.

[boxwood]

Here you go these guys run this auction over and over, I have emailed and they do have longer and bigger sizes and quite a bit cheaper than new, this will probably be my next machine material
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...&category=1267

[WOODKNACK]

hey HuFlungDung,
Nice name by the way! cuckery... hehehehehe. Anyway what is the address to reid tool supply? Thanks

[kdoney]

I don't claim to be an expert and I thought milling my own pillow blocks should be easy so I tried for 2 weeks and couldn't get them to where they wouldn't bind. Of course I was building a dual x axis and had to tie 4 of them together ( 2 on each rail)

[wms]

Sorry Hu is not here.

Reid tool supply company
www.reidtool.com.
800-438-1145
231-777-3951
2265 Black Creek Road
Muskegon,MI 49444-2684


HU's shadow (not the control on his mill)

[Zephrant]

What I am looking for are blocks to hold linear bearings, that slide on 3/4" steel shaft (continuously supported).

I was thinking of starting with a block of AL, drill/mill for the bearing and clearance slot, and milling steps in each side to allow for bolting on to the gantry. If I leave the bolt holes large enough, can I loosely assemble the gantry then tighten down all the blocks? The slightly oversize mounting holes allow movement in one axis at least. As long as I can drill straight, the other axis should be fine. If not, I can shim a little.

Sound feasible?

Zeph

[kdoney]

I can send you 4 billet aluminum pillow blocks I tried to get to work. These where drilled, bored and ground to what I thought where precise dimensions. Each pillow block would move smoothly down the linear shaft until I tried to tighted the gantry to two of them spanning two different shafts. Then they would bind. From what I was told, the interior of the pillow block (where the bearing goes) is not a straight bore hole but is slightly hour glass shaped so when the bearing needs to align it can move in the pillow block. I can't really say. I never got mine to work. Good luck.
Kevin

[ger21]

Here's a picture of my Z-axis/Router mount.

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/ger21/CNC/z1.jpg

It's baltic birch plywood with 1-1/4" holes for the bearings for 3/4" shaft. I haven't finished the gantry with the shaft mounts yet, but I dont see any problems with binding. I drilled the top and bottom mounts while they were attached together. Then I attached one to my shaft mounting plates and clamped it to my drill press with the 1-1/4" bit in the hole. Switched to 3/4" bit, and drilled shaft holes without moving plates. My bearings have some adjustment and they are a little sloppy on their own, but if I wrap a layer of tape around them and carefully slide them into the holes, they ride very snug on the shafts.

Gerry

[georgebarr]

Does anyone know how to make rail mounts for the rods? I got a pretty good idea about making the bearings using aluminum extrusion and a plain round bearing with some bolts. But how do you make the rail that supports the rod so it will be rigid and not bend from the weight?