Air assist on Series II knee?

I snuck in a little more time tonight working on Bridgett. Got the X axis to
travel the full length. Found I have a problem with the sliding metal
shields on the right side. They want to fall away from the table when doing
a positive X move and don't want to move together real well when doing a
negative X move. Looks like the part that is suppose to be screwed to the
table is just floating loose and causing the problem. The X axis is also
doing about 30 ipm with the Camtronics at 3 or so amps and 24 V. Got the Z
axis moving also. I didn't hook up the air to the knee as the hose from the
regulator to the fitting at the bottom of the knee pedestal has deteriorated
to the point that it is broken in many places and has enough crack that a
screen door is more air tight. Not a big deal to replace. The Camtronics
controller had the knee moving up without air at about 15 ipm. I am pretty
impressed as the voltage and amperage is set real low. Well, this leads me
to my question.

How does the air assist on the knee work? Looking at the pedestal there is
the air fitting entering the base at the back. at the top of the pedestal
there is a fitting with the lubricator line and a about 3" diameter
accordion covering going all the way to the top of the knee ball screw and
it contains the ball screw. Poking at the accordion covering very gently all
I can feel underneath is the ball screw. Is there an actual cylinder in this
thing somewhere? When I replace the airline and apply air will a coaxial
cylinder magically rise surrounding the ball screw?


Tim
[Denver, CO]