Linear bearing compromise

[turmite]

ybenn....I feel a little depsreed!

You will be very pleased with the v-bearings. I have used them for 12 yrs and they have never failed me. I don't have a site that sells them for $2.00 but I have 10 of them used that I would sell, no...I still have a use for them! What size bearing did you get?

Mike

[trent2530]

Turmite, I bought the dual-v wheels and track also. First I tried to mount the track to some mdf, but the mdf just isn't straight enough and the wheels would be tight in one area and slack in another. Should I just give up on mdf and go ahead to mounting the track on metal? Maybe metal from a machine shop who has the tools necessary to make it accurately? How did you mount your track?

[ynneb]

I think Turmite you are going to become the Dual V guru.

When you say you have been using them for 12 years, does that mean you have used the one set on your machine for that long, and also does that mean you have run them on mild steel angle iron as the shop bot does? If so, how well does the bearing wear, and how well does the angle iron wear?

Its the unshaped angle iron that I feel a bit iffy about.

If you have run them on the correct hardened steel track, I would also like to hear a report.

I dont suppose you would like to post some current photos of your setup?

Thanks mate.

EDIT: when you say "depsreed" I am assuming you mean depressed, but that doesnt make sense either. What were you meaning?

[vacpress]

trent: try acrylic! thick 3/4" or larger stuff is better than MDF.

[lsfoils]

vacpress,

Isn't the acrylic kind of expensive? Do you have a cheap supplier?

[ger21]

Kind of? Isn't 3/4" acryilc about 20x the cost of mdf?

[vacpress]

i dunno - mdf is cheap cuz its cheap.. its not made for building CNC machines. ive been told it warps and has instabilies.. i dunno about that. we use it to build jigs and fixtures for the wood equipment in the school shop - works fine for that...

i get my acrylic as cutoff from a plastics fabricator\distributor.. they are always very friendly and will sell half sheets.. i got a 2'x4' piece of .5" acrylic for $6 last time i was there. if i had wanted a 4x4' sheet, they had one for like $20

you dont have to build the whole machine of acrylic either. just build the parts that need to be most accurate of acrylic. build the parts that dont matter out of MDF.

look for PVC also. acrylic is more rigid, but PVC works easier, and may be cheaper.