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IndustryArena Forum > MetalWorking Machines > Uncategorised MetalWorking Machines > What is close to the rigidity of cast iron dove tail ways and cheap or shop buildable
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    0

    What is close to the rigidity of cast iron dove tail ways and cheap or shop buildable

    Finally have some time and unfortunately limited budget to start a build and it goes with a hiccup
    Was going to use 30mm linear bearings appr. 6m of the supported type of rails. By the way the future build is a 3 axis (with future intent to go 4 and 5) metal mill and will use a lower RPM spindle of the 2.5 to 5KW range almost exclusively running carbide on mostly aluminium and some steel sometimes hardened so according to popular opinion rigidity is the holy grail here. And almost forgot I want it to go 1.3m in X, 1m in Y and 0.7m in Z. Back to the rails - I was very hopeful, since the supplier here in Bulgaria is apparently the cheapest in the world, now after testing, not so much, mainly because they are to flexible to be considered rigid so I experimented with building supported with steel instead of aluminium rails, which is madly time consuming, but successful enough and even comes to the same price minus time to build. Now it seams I need to double the bearing blocks, they simply do not carry the static and dynamic loads as specified by producer, so that is too much. The 4 models of bearings I tested come from China, which may be the problem, but I don't have the money for any other, especially 24 of them or 12 of the double width.
    I have an idea what to build from scratch, but I do not want to reinvent the hot water as the saying goes, or invest a billion man hours if there is a simple solution that I missed. So does any one have any ideas of a ready and cheap or DIY type of solution for rigid ways.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Posts
    1955
    Maybe try casting them. Epoxy granite ? Turcite ? Maybe not perfect but perhaps good enough ?

    There is a thread on building frames from epoxy granite under "other machines" here on the forum

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Posts
    123
    Is local supplier a manufacturer or just a distributor? If they are a manufacturer, perhaps they can cut a set of rails for you in steel instead of alum. Never hurts to ask. How are you supporting the rails to frame? if you can fasten the rails in multiple location every few cm's to a rigid frame it should significantly improve stiffness considerably.

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