I have always been disappointed with the typical wiper seals that come with a ballscrew. For larger chips they do OK but not so much for fine wood/plastic chips. I thought I would share my DIY solution

Pictures: https://imgur.com/gallery/ZMEn6EQ

Materials:

-1/8" diameter felt cord (mcmaster)
-1 1/4" thick walled heat shrink tubing with heat activated adhesive (mcmaster)

Instructions:

1. wrap the felt cord around the ballscrew so that it lays in the ball channels
2. tape the ends of the felt cord helix so that they dont unwind
3. slip the heat shrink over the felt helix and shrink it with a heat gun. The adhesive on the inner wall of the heat shrink will adhere to the felt cord.
4. rotate the assembly off the end of the screw
5. cut off the bad ends where the tape was
6. cut the remaining piece into sections - I used approx 5/8" long for my seals
7. carefully thread the finished seal onto the screw. make sure to oil the felt as well.

In my case I am using a standard 1610 rolled ballscrew from china. However this method should work for almost any ballscrew. If you are using a 1610 or 1605 ballnut, you can remove the stock seal and install the DIY one instead. The outer diameter of the heat shrink is the same as the factory seal.

The felt seals do a fantastic job of keeping fine particles out. I tested this with fine MDF dust and it completely wiped it clean. The seals do increase the rotating friction, however I suspect this will go down after a burn in period.

hopefully this will be useful to someone, if anyone has suggestions I am all ears!