I was poking around on Amazon (Bad idea I know.) And came across these I was wondering if anyone had any experience with these? I know it’s a fairly expensive upgrade and what not but it would completely eliminate the Y axis drift wouldn’t it? As long as you spend the time to make it line up correctly anyway. I just thought it was a neat idea, thoughts?
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I am sourcing these right now for my Y-axis through a friend’s machine shop in exchange for helping him build a MPCNC derived multi-tool CNC table. Be aware that the open-block linear bearings sound like rock tumblers with concrete boulders in them. It’s absolutely imperative that you get the alignment 100% spot on with them. Additionally, the table will need to take the rails into account, namely by raising the spoil board high enough for the X gantry router plate to rest on flat with the machine at the lowest Z position if you want to be able to mill at full bit depth. (I’ve been thinking a LOT about this type of stuff lately).
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If you pull the trigger on it post some updates! I would love to see!
And dust and these rolling dust collectors (called bearings) mix perfectly to a source of frustration and unsuppressable cursing… btdt.
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Is there a reason you guys are not considering this style? These are the ones ive seen used most often.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V5VBPGG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_JWYxFbH4YG0D9
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I don’t trust my ability to line up 1800mm of them 
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I just bought these Jamie! I just mounted them by taking the wheels off and making a bracket from some 2in angle iron. I haven’t seen anyone else try this yet but hoping I have some success with it. So far it rolls pretty well and should get rid of the y drift. I will try to post the video soon.
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I can’t post the video because iPhone video format is strange but I took a few photos of the setup. I am thinking of just redesigning the brackets so its all 3d printable but this seems to work now. Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated!
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Great Job! you inspired me to go back to amazon and look for better linear rails then I linked before and I found these 1500mm ones. They will be about 50mm too long but better too long than too short. 140$ isnt too bad, think im going to try these.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DMG4P94/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A2LENQIUQD99WB&psc=1
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I wonder if you’ll have better luck with those. Keep us posted! How do you plan to attach them? similar bracket?
Just pushed the button on Amazon for them, hopefully they will come in soon. Yeah you L bracket looks like it would still work. We have a bunch of that stuff in the scrap bin the at the makerspace.
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You could also maybe use some conduit and adapt the carriages from the mpcnc. You would only need a rail on one side, the other could still ride on skate wheels.
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Rails came in this afternoon, Hopefully mounting later today/tomorrow
Looks good.
No alignment issues? They are running smoothly without to much noice? How long are they?
Alignment as pretty easy. Once I greased the bearings there is no noise at all. These are 1500mm or about 59in. Test cut came out within +/- .06mm of intended size.
I ordered the cylindrical style that Josh did, and I blame him for the 300 dollar diesel/kerosene torpedo heater I bought so I can use the garage this winter. I had planned to step away from the LowRider for the winter season, but the rails have rekindled my desire to run the bigger machine…
I will be getting everything mounted up tonight, then designing and printing an end-stop mount that slides onto the end of the linear rail for my endstop switches.
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I’m curious to see where you end up with this as I’ve been wondering a bit about this myself. Please share too many pictures when you’re done.
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Mine is together. I broke my cutoff wheel on my angle grinder, so I had to use my sawzall to cut the angle to length. I 3D printed a template to allow me to easily mark and drill all of the holes for the bearing blocks. The gantry glides like it’s on… rails.
I then designed and printed an end cap for the end of the linear rail that includes a mount for the Y-axis end stop limit switch. This is an old render. The newer design offers a larger switch mount.
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