hiwin rail question

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Originally Posted by Neale

Jonathan - am I correct in thinking that all the oil pipes go direct to the sliding carriages/ball nuts? Presumably you also had to be careful about routing pipes and allowing enough slack for movement.

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Yes and yes, but slack for movement doesn't present much of a challenge as the only pipes that move are the two connected to the gantry, which can be routed with the Y and Z axis motors. The challenge is when you have rotating nuts...

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Originally Posted by EddyCurrent

That's fine if you use oil, but I'm on about grease. Tell me this though, does the oil drip about all over the place ? it's okay for you people who cut metal but I'm cutting wood and the last thing I want is oil contaminated wood, that's why I use grease.

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If you put plenty of oil in then yes, it goes everywhere. Perhaps it could be managed with more careful control of the quantity.

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Originally Posted by silyavski

Now in the manual 4.5 they say there is a thing called "Self-lubricating kit ‚E2’ "

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http://www.hiwin.com/pdf/lg/linear_guideways_e2.pdf

Looks okay, uses oil, but I don't understand why these and other accessories, Hiwin especially, are so difficult to source and purchase. it's always like finding rocking horse cac.

In the same document is Hiwin - Intelligent Linear Guideway, looks like it might have potential to be used for position feedback similar to an encoder.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EddyCurrent

That's fine if you use oil, but I'm on about grease. Tell me this though, does the oil drip about all over the place ? it's okay for you people who cut metal but I'm cutting wood and the last thing I want is oil contaminated wood, that's why I use grease.

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If you over fill with grease it comes out and the same is true with oil. The trick is to regulate the flow or pulse small quirts at regular intervals so just enough to coat the bearings with fine smear on rails. It's not difficult really.
My mill as got programmable lube system which can pulse the pump and it just oils the bearings and ways nicely with very little to no excess, certainly not enough to contaminate anything.
You can buy these cheap enough now and they even do ones which will pump grease.

Same thing could easily be made with an arduino cycling a pump.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EddyCurrent

That's fine if you use oil, but I'm on about grease. Tell me this though, does the oil drip about all over the place ? it's okay for you people who cut metal but I'm cutting wood and the last thing I want is oil contaminated wood, that's why I use grease.

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You can do a central lube system and still use grease. Our Morbidelli has one.