What do you lubricate your sliding table saw ways with?

[Stewart Lang]

I have a slider and do regular maintenance on the ways every week or two. I usually spray a light coating of Jojoba oil on the ways for lubrication, which seems to work pretty well. Just wondering what everyone else is using? Anyone use a dry lubricant like spray teflon or graphite or something similar? Seems like with an oil, dust collects a little quicker.

[Mark e Kessler]

What brand saw? On My Felder xroll it's only wipe with a dry cloth if there is resin build up (shouldn't be any if all the wipers are in order) then you can use a resin remover other than that no oil/lubrication is required.

Mark

I have a slider and do regular maintenance on the ways every week or two. I usually spray a light coating of Jojoba oil on the ways for lubrication, which seems to work pretty well. Just wondering what everyone else is using? Anyone use a dry lubricant like spray teflon or graphite or something similar? Seems like with an oil, dust collects a little quicker.

[Steve Wurster]

What brand saw? On My Felder xroll it's only wipe with a dry cloth if there is resin build up (shouldn't be any if all the wipers are in order) then you can use a resin remover other than that no oil/lubrication is required.

Mark

The same is true for my Hammer K3; the manual just says to wipe clean and remove resin. No lubrication is required.

[Jim Becker]

Zero lubrication on my SCM/MM S315WS since I bought it in the mid-2000s. I blow out the dust occasionally. I'm not a heavy user, but I also seem to recall that nothing special is required.

[johnny means]

Never seen anyone lubing a slider.

[Mark e Kessler]

I believe the Martin saws (at least some of them) have a built in lube pad on the end of the slide that you manually charge

[Erik Loza]

The Italians specified an occasional wipe-down of the guideways with kerosene or diesel fuel in their manuals. Or at least they used to. I just got a TSB spec’ing an aerosol product called “Ballistol” for X-roll machines in high-use environments. You don’t spray the machine, just spray the rag and wipe the guideways down. My personal feeling is that it should be part of your routine maintenance protocol but obviously, the needs of a production shop will be different than a home shop. One thing I do suggest to folks is to make sure and cycle the slider lock-to-lock on a regular basis, to clear out those chunks of sawdust. This seems to be more of an issue with folks who only use the machines infrequently or who are doing most of their cutting with a partial stroke of the slider.

Erik

[Steve Jenkins]

The ways don’t need lubricant because bearings ride on them. All they need is to be kept clean.

[Jim Becker]

One thing I do suggest to folks is to make sure and cycle the slider lock-to-lock on a regular basis, to clear out those chunks of sawdust.

This is absolutely sage advice...especially when one most commonly uses the saw for crosscutting and ripping smaller things most of the time. "Stuff" can get gunked up because of dis-used of some of the machine's range of motion at the extents.

[Steve Wurster]

One thing I do suggest to folks is to make sure and cycle the slider lock-to-lock on a regular basis, to clear out those chunks of sawdust. This seems to be more of an issue with folks who only use the machines infrequently or who are doing most of their cutting with a partial stroke of the slider.
Erik

I completely agree with Erik's statement (and Jim's concurrence). I ran into this about 6 months ago when I noticed the slider was partly blocking my ability to change the blade on my saw. Most of my usage had been with partial strokes, contributing to the issue. Everything cleared up after a few minutes of fully pushing the slider back and forth.

[Rod Sheridan]

Felder sell a lubricant for the sliding table, in oil format. https://us.feldershop.com/en-US/en-U...inium-can.html

Here's the addendum to the operators manual. Sliding Table Lubrication.zip
I use #10 SAE on a cloth, just on the steel runners in the fixed portion of the sliding table..................Rod.

[Kevin Jenness]

I used to work in a shop that had an 80's era Martin T71. It had an oil reservoir in the table that let oil onto the ways through felt wipers. I believe the manual called for 30w oil. That table design has v-shaped ways with large balls, and Martin uses essentially the same carriage design today.I figure if Martin designs for regular oiling it can't be a bad idea. A slider is no better than its carriage and when the ways are shot it is rarely economical to rebuild. Probably not an issue for hobby use but worth considering.

[Mark e Kessler]

Interesting, meanwhile in the k700 manual it explicitly states something like “warning risk of material damage, do not grease or oil the guides”..

Felder sell a lubricant for the sliding table, in oil format. https://us.feldershop.com/en-US/en-U...inium-can.html

I use #10 SAE on a cloth, just on the steel runners in the fixed portion of the sliding table..................Rod.

[Rod Sheridan]

Interesting, meanwhile in the k700 manual it explicitly states something like “warning risk of material damage, do not grease or oil the guides”..

Sliding Table Lubrication.zip

Mark, that was then, this is now

Here's the addendum to the operators manual...........Rod.

[Mark e Kessler]

well I’ll be darned... whats the date on that? Of course they don’t put it on the sheet also assume it applies xroll only? Details details details...

My saw was delivered in Oct and the addendum was not included

Sliding Table Lubrication.zip

Mark, that was then, this is now

Here's the addendum to the operators manual...........Rod.