Those look awful. But sometimes those sort of things will surprise you how well they clean up. We had an old machine that had rectangular ways with tank bearings that looked nearly that bad. Some oil, steel wool, and some elbow grease and they looked surprisingly well afterword. But I think those tank bearings and rectangular ways are a lot more forgiving than profile ways with their small ball bearings. Like others have said, you won't really be able to judge the extent of the damage until they are cleaned up. But for a wood working machine it may still be serviceable once it's cleaned up. Also depends a bit on the configuration of the machine. For example for a long cantilevered gantry like a lot of the European pod and rail type machines are built like, will not tolerate any slop in the long axis ways.
What ever you do, don't try moving any of the axis until all that rust is cleaned up. Hopefully your screws don't look like that. Todd Zuercher P. Graham Dunn Inc. 630 Henry Street Dalton, Ohio 44618 Phone: (330)828-2105ext. 2031 -----Original Message----- From: Viesturs Lācis <viesturs.la...@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, March 11, 2024 3:43 AM To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) <emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net> Subject: [Emc-users] How to treat rusted linear rails? [You don't often get email from viesturs.la...@gmail.com. Learn why this is important at https://aka.ms/LearnAboutSenderIdentification ] [EXTERNAL EMAIL] Be sure links are safe. Hello! Last year there was a chance to acquire Biesse machine for a a really low price so I surprised myself with pretty large and heavy Christmas present. Just put it in the workshop (where heating is not yet present) and was waiting for a warmer weather to start retrofitting it with LinuxCNC. Since this machine has spent at least several years in a shed - roof above it but no other protection against outside temperatures, I did not worry about adding one more winter to it. I have 2 questions: 1) are there any recommendations for outside temperature when trying to connect it to power? I want to see the status messages on servodrives - hopefully they are good (I have done 4 similar retrofits so I feel familiar with those old drives). 2) my main problem is the rust on linear rails. what is recommended procedure to treat this? Here is a picture that show the extent of the issue: https://pasteboard.co/C1EAn0w5t8KT.jpg What I did is brushing it with a piece of steel wool moisted with oil. I am not sure that it is sufficient so I would appreciate any tips on how to treat them. Viesturs _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
