Budgetcnc

[GaryCorlew]

Has anyone ever bought from this company?
http://www.budgetcnc.com
they are in hongkong and their prices are the best I have ever seen, I wanted to find out others experiences before sending my money over there.

[mjarus]

The linear bearings looked like a decent price as well as the PS (if it is really putting out as rated), but I think a lot of the other stuff can be found elswhere for cheaper.

What were you looking at getting there?

mjarus.

[GaryCorlew]

I was looking to buy linear rails with supports and linear bearings bearings. Their price for these are about 50% of thompson. I sent them an email almost a week ago, beacuse I need longer lengths then what they have on the site. No reply as yet, so I guess I'll have to go with plan "B" and buy from VXB and make my own rails.

[mjarus]

I just got a quote from some place that was mentioned in a post here somewhere for linear rails and blocks. The 24" slides were $85 and the blocks were $65. I can dig it up if you need.

In the end I think I am going to try to fabricate my own. As a matter of fact I am heading out to the garage now to start the blocks. I am going to use 1 inch Delrin rounds with the center bored out to 1/2 inch for the slide. For the rail I picked up some precision shaft that is +0/-.001 for about $6 ea for 24in. at my local supplier. He turned me away from the drill rod (which was actually more expensive) and said that this would work better.

We will see how it works... worse case scenario I am out about a total of $40 for 4 rails and the Delrin and UHMW (which I will try if the Delrin binds too much). It the grand scheme of things, that is nothing and worth it to me to prove or disprove the on-going debate about DIY slides.

Also look on eBay... a lot of Thompson stuff on there for relatively cheap. Right now I see a lot of 3 rails with slides @ $41. This will shoot up at the end, but it is worth watching. I wasn't paying attention and lost 2 new Thompson 6" slides with dual blocks. They went for $10.50 . There went a cheap good Z axis.

mjarus.

[GaryCorlew]

Yes I would like like to find out where you got that quote from, that would be about $127.50 for 36" long(which is what I would need them to be). I can buy the same thing from http://www.vxb.com for $39.95 and the open bearings are $24.95 ea. Then I would have to mill them down for a flat spot along the length for drilling and tapping and also to move them away from the mounting surface, similar to raised rails, with a flat bar in between the rail and mounting surface. I didn't really want to have to do all that machining but for now I think that is my best option. I have been watching ebay a lot, and I have bid a quite a few. The price usually goes up to nearly what they can be bought new for, I don't understand why people are willing to pay those kinds of prices!. I have a price from hwin, the cost for my rails with two trucks per rail was $286.00 per rail @ 36" one that I was bidding on went for over $300.00 and they were 36" long just like I needed and used, to me that is just crazy. There is someone on ebay selling a ball screw with nut for $120.00, it is 60" long this can be bought from http://www.homeshopcnc.com for $1.20 per inch plus $55.00 for a preloaded nut, that works out to be $127.00, I would gladly pay $7.00 more for a new one with a guarantee.

[mjarus]

I found them here:

http://www.kelinginc.net/SlideBlock.html

Here is the body of the email that they sent when I asked about 24" rails and blocks:

We have thes block and slide in Chicago. 24" slide : $85/pcs Block: $65/pcs ( size 20 or 25) Brand new In stock John

I can't vouch for these guys as I just learned about them on these forums and never used them, but they look o.k. and gave a prompt response to my inquiry. I guess you could always call them as well.

Hope they work for you!

mjarus.

[mjarus]

I just noticed that you said 39.95 for the rod... that is pretty high! I got 4 pcs of 24" for 24 bucks. What I got is listed as 1045 ground shafting. I cannot gurantee it is the EXACT same thing, but if it works... I went to the local Metal Supermarkets and got it. A word of warning though... all Metal Supermarkets are not equal. Around here in Atlanta there are 2 of them and one runs about 1.5 times the cost of the other. Turns out they are franchises and prices and service vary widely. If you are interesed in that route I can give you the owners e-mail and phone number of the one I got mine from and you can contact him and have him ship it. He is a reall nice guy. He also has regular drill rod and ground stainless.

mjarus.

[GaryCorlew]

Thank you for that info. the rods at VXB are hardened, made for linear bearings. The 1045 ground shaft will not work with linear bearings, from what I have read on these forums. the bearings will tear up the surface. I ended up getting everything I needed from VXB, they are supposed to be here on friday. Now I will have to do some machining to make them work for me.

[yukonho]

I dont think that grinding or machining a flat along the entire length is the way to go. That will likely cause the shaft to warp. It is best to use a ball nose endmill and cut a channel in your support piece that the shaft will sit in, and just drill and tap the shaft every few inches to bolt it to your support piece.
GaryCorlew is right, the shaft needs to be hardened or the balls will just dig in.
Colin