Play in linear bearings

[Ross77]

Hi Mike
How much slack are you talking about? and I presume you arnt talking about the the round rail? Linear bearings are adjusted by changing the ball size, but thats normally just to set the pre load. I've played with the thk ones and there not to bad. although even the worn S/H ones I have don't have any slack as such, just roll easier

To my mind there is no better way than precision ground just cheaper options. for such a small footprint precision rails don't work out to cheap as the carriages are the expensive bit.

bit more info needed as you might be able to get away with using only one carriage per axis if the design and use allow.........

[leadinglights]

Hi Ross,
I was thinking about the precision ground round rails, 20mm for the longest axis - probably for the others as well, though I may go down to 16mm for the Z. My guess (if I am wrong please tell me) is that unsupported is the best way to go if short rails are used (my longest rails will be 400mm) while the open bearings for supported rails would give more slack but reduced spring in the rails themselves.

Mike