hiwin rail question

**charlieuk** · 20-12-2014

The principal works with the nipples only thing I'm struggling with is that the grease is quite thick and very hard to pump in with a syringe. Is there a thinner type of grease I could use or something I could mix it with even if I have to do it more often. ? At the moment I'm just trying high performance lithium bearing grease class2

**EddyCurrent** · 20-12-2014

Originally Posted by charlieuk

. . . the grease is quite thick and very hard to pump in with a syringe.

Originally Posted by JAZZCNC

You'll need to wire the pipe to the nipples else the pressure blows them off.

There does seem to be lot of resistance, I think the rail drilling idea might be the way to go.

**mekanik** · 20-12-2014

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

**Neale** · 20-12-2014

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

**mekanik** · 20-12-2014

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

**Neale** · 20-12-2014

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

**Boyan Silyavski** · 20-12-2014

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’ "

**JAZZCNC** · 21-12-2014

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’ "

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.

**Jonathan** · 21-12-2014

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

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

**Neale** · 21-12-2014

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...