I've bought a load of what I presume is Hiwin copy rail and carriages. Its not preloaded as far as I know.
I see from trying out a few of carriages that some run smoothly and some don't. I've not lubricated them just slid them onto the rail. Perhaps this stickyness is normal?
How would I go about verifying if the issue is with the carriage and not the rail and how to remedy the stickiness.
There is some residual coating from the manufacturing but i'm stil waiting for the lithium grease to arrive. I'm beginning to presume that the stickyness is normal and they just need a load on them.
Hiwin clones? I would spray them down with some kind of cleaner. Try to get any grit leftover from the manufacturing out of the carriages. Then grease with a good NLGI1 lithium soap based. I use Mobil EP1 and is actually listed as a recommended grease on Hiwins lubrication and maintenance manual.
True Hiwin made in Taiwan linear rails come cleaned and greased properly. Not so with Chinese clone rails.
Thanks, i'll get them greased soon. Today's time in the workshop took a turn on dscovering bearings popping out from two of the carriages after withdrawing the rail!! I know, a classic mistake but to be fair it was just one of those things and I recovered all the bearings. Now to put them back in?!
Ball nuts and rail bearings usually have a tube somewhere on the outside. Balls are loaded through that tube. A big mistake is to try to put too many balls in: they can jam up. The photo below shows a stripped down ball nut:
There are two bits of pressed metal shaped like drawer handles in the RH plastic tub - along with all the balls. There is also a wide saddle below them: that holds the tube bits in place.
Does not hurt to add a tiny bit of grease to the balls as they go in: keeps them in place if nothing else.