Hello,

i'm wondering if anyone has ever seen sintered bronze bearings used as slides and gibs instead of solid brass, to facilitate better lubrication and less wear.

I am setting up a furnace to make a casting and i'm intending to make a Z axis slide for a custom one of a kind milling machine, basically copy the Taig Y axis design. but i don't like aluminum sliding on steel. so i figure, just put the brass gib on both sides.

then i got to thinking, could i set up my milling machine to turn half a pound of brass into shavings, press it into a blank, and sinter it myself, because the only options i have would be to buy 50$ worth of 1 inch inside diameter bronze bushings on ebay, and make round ways instead of flat ones.. but i figure that's a lot more work, i don't think anyone sells solid blocks of sintered bronze bushing material?

I guess the only issue i can see off is the sintered bronze bushings are 80% bronze, so you're only getting 80% surface area.
also, the gibb needs to be fully supported, a tapered insertion type of gib rather than xx setscrews holding it in place.. but that's all i can think of right now.