Re: Linear motion design Q

Hi,

I am in the process of designing my router table. I looked into
bearing and shafting and found for what I wanted it would cost be a
small fortune just for the X-axis. I was looking at a 4ft X-axis and
would need to supoort the shaft or face deflection in the middle.
Again this meant more money.

What I have been working on is a way to use roller bearing (from
Roller blades), they cost $15 for 16 bearing. I am thinking of running
them on a piece of colled rolled steel. It's cheap and will not
deflect as a round shaft would. I priced a piece at onlinemetals.com
and it runs about $10 for a 4 ft section. I will post a picture of my
idea later. Mind you, it's only a ruff draft.

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., "y2patmat" <patmat2350@a...> wrote:
> OK, in a medium sized CNC router, the guides can be one of the bigger
> expenses. One can use fully constrained guides (like Thomson bearings
> on shafts), or "half constrained", like rails that the moving table
> sits on, where gravity is the only thing that keeps the table from
> lifting.
> For simple routing, have folks had success with rails (and perhaps
> massive tables)?
> patmat