Joseph Shawa
09-25-2017, 7:39 PM
found that the motion wasn't what I would expect from a precision instrument so I tried to take it apart while on the rail and apply lubricant directly into it.... not knowing what I was getting into.
Fortunately I had the foresight to put a baking pan below and didn't feel quite the fool when the ball bearings started spilling out.
I took the rail off and slid the linear bearing off and proceeded to reassemble the thing.
Good thing I have high power glasses and a microscope as the parts in there a DANG SMALL!
About an hour later I got a hundred little tiny bearing back in and got it all back together and put it back onto the rail.....still not what I would expect. It was kind of a JITTERY grabby feeling. So going back to my skateboarding days when I used to replace my worn ball bearings with BBs and because they were slightly over sized the wheels would kind of turn with a bit of a un-smooth JITTERY feel. So I did to my linear bearing what I did back then and remove ONE ball bearing from each of the four slots. I tried it again and voilla! Smooth gliding with no loose play as one would expect from a precision device. Now, I'm not sure if they packed Four extra balls into it by mistake or they expected it to wear out and get smoother over time but I am much happier now with four less.
Fortunately I had the foresight to put a baking pan below and didn't feel quite the fool when the ball bearings started spilling out.
I took the rail off and slid the linear bearing off and proceeded to reassemble the thing.
Good thing I have high power glasses and a microscope as the parts in there a DANG SMALL!
About an hour later I got a hundred little tiny bearing back in and got it all back together and put it back onto the rail.....still not what I would expect. It was kind of a JITTERY grabby feeling. So going back to my skateboarding days when I used to replace my worn ball bearings with BBs and because they were slightly over sized the wheels would kind of turn with a bit of a un-smooth JITTERY feel. So I did to my linear bearing what I did back then and remove ONE ball bearing from each of the four slots. I tried it again and voilla! Smooth gliding with no loose play as one would expect from a precision device. Now, I'm not sure if they packed Four extra balls into it by mistake or they expected it to wear out and get smoother over time but I am much happier now with four less.