8020 Inc Sliding Table

[Greg Jurrens]

Has anybody on SMC used 8020 inc. linear motion bearings and track to make a sliding table. I'm thinking about making a horizontal slot mortiser. Any thoughts on thiswould be appreciated.
Greg

[Peter Pedisich]

Greg,

I have been thinking of this very thing for about 2 years now. I design structures out of 8020 at work and The linear motion bearings are smooth but pricey.
I'm not sure if you know if you go to their website you can go to the "garage sale" and save some money. Reid tool and McMaster Carr also carry some of the 8020 stuff

Pete

[Rick Lizek]

I've using a lot of 80/20 stuff over the years and have toyed with a number of ideas. There was an article in the hobby mag American Woodworker March 2004 with an excellent article on a "homemade" router lift using brionze bushings and steel rod off the shelf from a regular hardware store or place like Mcmaster. Seems like a great simple, inexpensive way to make a slot mortiser, shaper/router sliding tables and who knows what else. The potential is enormous in my opinion.

There's also the Grizzly G0540 for a bit over $330 which is tough to top. I've made several over the years using old handmills and used quite a few of the commercial ones over the years so I'm already a slot mortisder fan of some 25 years.

[Greg Jurrens]

I have an older unused Shopsmith and my idea was to convert it to a horizontal slot mortiser. By using the quill feed and the table height adjustment all I would need is a sliding table. Do you think the 10 series rails and linear bearings would work in this application?
Greg

[Alan Turner]

I am not a machinist, but there is a fellow on ebay who oft sells linear bearings and rods at what look like good prices. He is in upstate New York. I think they are of good quality, but you would need to look yourself. A slot mortiser is what I thought of for some years with such hardware.