Older Redsail x700 upgrade linear rail nce upgrade

[Clark Pace]

Just a quick little note: My 10 years redsail old x700. For those of you who have this laser wheel wheels on the X axis. My 2nd laser has linear rails. I thought it would be nice if my x700 had linear rails also. I paid $22 on amazon. And it was a pretty simple straight forward upgrade. I only had to drill 4 holes in total to match the linear rails.

I just did it yesterday, but so far it's night and day. I have pushed my engraving speeds from 300mm sec to 700mm. I may try even faster. Also my general cuts are much smoother. So far it's likea whole new machine. Which is nice as it gets used everyday for my business.

[Kev Williams]

I love the linear rails on my 17-year old Gravograph LS-900, I've never touched them with ANY sort of lube whatsoever, yet to this day if I disconnect the belt from the X rail, a gentle push and the head will move nearly as easily and freely as a ball bearing on a new sheet of glass. And there is no measurable or discernible free-play in any other direction.

Yet, the rail bearings on my GCC (which I bought used) have been changed twice. I DID find out the problem with the old bearing sets: The owners manual, which instructs the user to apply GREASE to the rails. When I replaced bearing head a few years ago, I spoke with the bearing mfr. on the phone, and he explained that these types of bearings need very little if any lubrication at all, and told me nothing 'heavier' than LIGHT machine oil should ever be applied to the bearing rails. The reason for no grease is, that there's no room for it in the bearing housing, it takes up too much space! -and the bearing balls can be ejected from the housing! I know this to be true because my old bearing, which was only like 3 years old, had spit 3 of them- that I know of- out onto the engraving table! The new bearing went in with no extra lube whatsover, I just wiped the dust off the rail and put it all back together. Just last week I sprayed some light spray oil into a shop rag and gave the rail a quick lick. This bearing is about as old as the one it replaced, and the machine engraves wonderfully- and it's 15 years old...

Then there's my Triumph 1390, which was never designed for engraving, including the concave roller bearings that ride on polished SS rods embedded into the extruded X gantry rail-- A few weeks ago I gave the roller an adjustment as I noticed one roller wasn't turning. The adjustment had no effect that I could notice! I spent a LOT of time tweaking this machine in the early days to engrave decent, and it still does

Enjoy your 'new' machine! Just don't grease that rail!