Well here goes... Aluminium frame router design

[CharlieRam]

Well that's been a few days of discovery I won't forget in a hurry!

I stripped the carriage again, gave it a good clean and scotchbrite on all ports and ball ways, reassembled the carriage temporarily, put it back on the rail and started to slide it up and down to check the tightness and then....the end came off and 120 balls all over the floor! F$%k, I found 118 of them and still had 2 spare from Lee luckily.

Oh yeah, I also decided to check the other carriages now I'm confident the balls wont go flying if I remove them a couple of the others seem to have one ball missing too!

Cleaned it all again and secured it properly this time but it still felt tight, that is when I noticed the carriages looked slightly different on the exterior, so I checked the serial numbers again, both are DFH20A but the nice fitting ones have S01411040 and the tight one has S01207841. Does anyone know if any of these numbers signify the preload, I'm thinking I may have a higher preload carriage or is it just a batch number and one was made at a different time with not such a good QC?

More Importantly, will it affect the build having a mis matched carriage?

Cheers, Charlie

[Lee Roberts]

Hi Lee,

so I checked the serial numbers again, both are DFH20A but the nice fitting ones have S01411040 and the tight one has S01207841. Does anyone know if any of these numbers signify the preload, I'm thinking I may have a higher preload carriage or is it just a batch number and one was made at a different time with not such a good QC?

Cant help there sorry, what you could do is mic the ball's and see if they are diffrent, this may give you the anwser.

More Importantly, will it affect the build having a mis matched carriage?

I can’t see it being a problem, so would just go with it, others may know better but I can’t think what problems it may introduce, ultimately if it is a preload difference then its unbalanced but would suggest it’s going to be such a small amount, just leaving you with the least amount of preload as your best number, so again not a problem.

.Me

[CharlieRam]

Hi Lee,

Cant help there sorry, what you could do is mic the ball's and see if they are diffrent, this may give you the anwser.

.Me

Is that how the preload is set then? with slightly larger ball's?

[Lee Roberts]

Is that how the preload is set then? with slightly larger ball's?

Hiya,

Pretty much yes, if you use slightly bigger ball bearings than the distance between the carriages and rail.

The ball bearing size (relative) determines the amount of preload achieved. From what I've read, the most common amounts of preload used for linear guides are 8, 5 and 2 percent of their load rating (dynamic).

For ballscrews and nuts you can do the same thing with the ball sizing, use an adjustable nut or use two nuts.

.Me

[CharlieRam]

Well.....I've been a bit quiet on here and for good reason, I found out my good wife was having an affair!! So dealing with a lot of shit at the minute, mainly custody of the kids and making sure I still have a family home and some cash left at the end of it. Just had my Decree nisi date for the 1st September so all being well and if we can come to a fair agreement on asset splitting (Fair to me would be she got F all but that ain't gonna happen) Hopefully I will be divorced middle of November, What a waste of 22 years! but onward and upward and hopefully I will be in the mood to start/finish my machine soon. Think I need a hobby to get me out the house and meet some new people.
Take care and if you feel like lifes getting you down....Just think about me and how it could be worse and have a good chuckle :) I know it's not quite life or death but sometimes it feels like it!

[JAZZCNC]

Charlie I've got the T-shirt been there done that in exactly the same circumstances, actually was with my best mate so possible worse if you didn't know the Twat and let me tell you buddy it's the best thing that happened to me.!

You'll soon learn Money and assets mean very little in grand scheme. The kids will love you no matter what and even if young they are not stupid they know who's gulity so don't worry about them.

Stings like bastard at first and if you can get thru the Dark nights then after while you'll get your head around the fact that your FREE.!! . . . .Then it's Charlie Time. .

Keep chin up mate it does get better.

[CharlieRam]

Well at least I didn't know the bloke but she did, she worked with him for six years! but the affair "only" started last August. It's not so much the affair but her attitude since I found out. She is trying to prevent me seeing the kids at every opportunity she can even though I was their sole carer for the first 2 months. Being a total be itch like I was the one who did wrong won't talk to me, Text only or "speak to your solicitor" She's gonna be in for a shock though because I offered her £40000 for a clean break and her solicitor said she'd get a lot more (without knowing any financial details) so she refused but it seems she may be entitled to less than that now and because she went straight to a solicitor she will end up with even less. Here's hoping.