hiwin rail question

Eddy
You could connect the bearing blocks with a piece of pipe so you charge both of them @ the same time so no need to drill both ends of the rail
regards
Mike

Aren't these rails hardened and ground? Can you drill (and especially tap) them?

I would have thought so but Boyan seems to have managed it, perhaps he could comment.

I believe that you can cut threads with a spark eroder, but that seems a bit OTT...

I was looking at this yesterday. I'm going to buy some 6mm brass/copper grease pipe and some male stud couplings, elbows and tees and make it so there is just one greasing point per axis. I was thinking of doing it so that when the home command was given the axis all returned to the home position where the Z connected to the Y axis grease system and the Y axis connected to the X axis system so that there was just one point to lubricate...

Hiwin Lubrication Manual, so you know the proper quantities and other stuff.


Yes, that's what i meant. Drill the rail and inject grease through the rail.

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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by silyavski

Hiwin Lubrication Manual, so you know the proper quantities and other stuff.


Yes, that's what i meant. Drill the rail and inject grease through the rail.



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

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Drilling the rail isn't going to help very much, you may as well just grease the rails for what good it will do. This method will only smear grease on the outer surface of the balls and the rest will come out the ends past the seals, only a very small percentage will get to where it matters. You want grease or lube on the inside of the bearings so it flows thru the circuits and end caps.
Yes it's better than nothing but the pipe and tube method is easy enough and you know the grease is getting exactly where it's needed.

Personally I'd fit a timer lubrication pump and pump oil thru the bearings. Timer pumps from china are relatively cheap now and they can be programmed to pump at regular intervals so you know the bearings are getting lubed and flag up or E-stop the machine if low on oil etc.

I don't really see what all the fuss is about, it's just a few tubes and simple parts to make on a lathe? I guess if you've not got a lathe then that doesn't help matters.

In my build log all the bearings and ballnuts are connected with tubes look towards the end of the of the first post in the thread:

http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/6484-...8616#post48616

http://www.mycncuk.com/attachment.ph...0&d=1377723771

The Y-axis rails are the same size as yours.

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.

And for anyone who does not want or does not have the facilities to make the components, Arc Euro Trade (and probably plenty of other places) sell all the bits. I have a central lubrication system on my vertical mill, and it does mean that the slideways get lubricated much more often than when I had to do it all manually. It's a thought...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jonathan

I don't really see what all the fuss is about, it's just a few tubes and simple parts to make on a lathe?

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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.