Whats a good way to keep dust out of my transmission screws?

[OneAndy]

I know, good dust collection will help. But other than that, what can I do?

The dust is really messing up my screw lubrication. The dust particles seem to absorb all the grease and then clump up and fall off, removing most of the lube from the screw.

[CarveOne]

Try Dupont Teflon Multi-Use Dry Wax Lubricant seems to work well for lead screws. A light spray once in a while (depending on machine run-time) makes the lead nut wear life longer and all you see is a little excess wax being shaved off at the lead nut threads. It doesn't need much after the first application. Available at home building centers and automobile parts retailers.

CarveOne

[ger21]

LPS-1 might work well too. Any dry lubricant should be cleaner.

[OneAndy]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try a dry lube and see how it works.

Right now, I'm using Lubriplate no. 105 Motor Assembly grease.

[CarveOne]

I have some 3-n-1 Professional Garage Door Dry Lube that has PTFE in it that may work also. Something that isn't sticky and leaves a dry film of some sort will not collect dust as bad as grease.

I just fold a piece of printer paper and hold it behind the lead screw to keep the spray off of the parts that I don't want it on.

CarveOne

[jsheerin]

I'm working on designing way covers for my router to avoid this. I plan on folding up some fiber reinforced plastic of some type to make bellows. I just can't see paying all that money for screws, nuts and bearings and then leaving them open. However, it is a serious pain in the neck. I've worked out designs for my x and z axes, but the y is still eluding me. There aren't a lot of examples of people doing this that I can find, so I've kind of been on my own.

[OneAndy]

Originally Posted by jsheerin I'm working on designing way covers for my router to avoid this. I plan on folding up some fiber reinforced plastic of some type to make bellows. I just can't see paying all that money for screws, nuts and bearings and then leaving them open. However, it is a serious pain in the neck. I've worked out designs for my x and z axes, but the y is still eluding me. There aren't a lot of examples of people doing this that I can find, so I've kind of been on my own.

Maybe a piece of plastic split loom conduit, wrapped around the leadscrew? A piece on either side of the transmission nut?

[LeeWay]

You can also use some hot glue around both ends of the nut to seal them off a little better. Use it to form a pretty good seal.

[Freff]

At present I'm using a couple of tooth brushes fixed either side of the leadscrew nut. Suprisingly, it works quite well brushing of the crud as it travels.