Thread: Linear rail shafts for planer

So long as it's the supported rail 20mm is more than adequate. For the long axis you even could use down to 12mm with the exact same results, as the aluminium base is what gives it the rigidity. Use the 20mm for the sliding axis though, although you'd most likely want to be supporting them on some steel angle/rectangle/square for the sliding axis to avoid it dipping in the middle. A couple of cheap lintels from gumtree would be ideal for that depending on how rigid you want it to be.

cheers, Ian

Originally Posted by aarggh

So long as it's the supported rail 20mm is more than adequate. For the long axis you even could use down to 12mm with the exact same results, as the aluminium base is what gives it the rigidity. Use the 20mm for the sliding axis though, although you'd most likely want to be supporting them on some steel angle/rectangle/square for the sliding axis to avoid it dipping in the middle.

cheers, Ian

Thanks, 12mm sounds much better for the budget! Hopefully I can find some at 3m long

I got some mild steel spare which I could use for the sliding portion. Is it ok to mount the shafts on their side (like they do in the video) onto the steel rectangle I have? Just so its not too high off the table? Or is that not recommended?


edit:
Is it ok to join shafts? I was thinking, use a bearing at the join so theyre lined up and then screw the shafts down?

For the sliding part mounting them on their sides should actually make them a little stiffer than mounting them upright given the aluminium support is wider than it is high normally. Although 1.5m is still very wide, and will sag towards the middle to some degree without some serious support. Might be very minor sag but you'd need to factor that in however you make it.

cheers, Ian

I think woodworkers have yet to truly discover linear bearings and all the uses they can be put to. I am making a bandsaw fence using them to replace the piece of rubbish on my mine and my next router table will have two lots of them in it.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

I think woodworkers have yet to truly discover linear bearings and all the uses they can be put to. I am making a bandsaw fence using them to replace the piece of rubbish on my mine and my next router table will have two lots of them in it.

Can you go into a bit more detail about how you are utilizing them?

I actually thought it would be good to make a sliding table with it for the table saw

The router table is a copy of this made by MandJ but using a CNC spindle.

Yet another Router table build.

Forgetting all the electronics a manual version could be built very cheaply using linear rails. The band saw is a work in progress waiting for me to come up with a final design.