Rusty rails

[twelchPTM]

My bot is almost a year only and I love the machine, possibly more then my wife but don't tell her that. I have been solving little issues here and there as no out of th box machine fits everyone's application perfectly. The current issue I am preparing to deal with may not even be an issue but there is surface rust forming on my x and y rails, I clean them everytime I grease the racks but i just don't like the idea of there being rust on my machine. I plan to call shopbot today to make sure they are not defective or sub-par material but am wondering if anyone else has this issue and how they deal with it.

[myxpykalix]

I've had my bot for over 6 years and never noticed any rust on the rails. It would seem to me rust would form because of condensation and moisture occurring. Do any other tool surfaces have the same issue? Do you have a tablesaw?
I have seen rust occur on my tablesaw and jointer surface in the past and i marked that up to the weather changing. Here is something i used on my legacy ornamental mill to keep the surface clean and protected and helped glide the carriage on the rails.
I spray this on my tablesaw and jointer and it makes material slide across it like on a sheet of ice. It's called Dyna-Glide
http://legacywoodworking.com/products.cfm?product=12

[Brady Watson]

...there is surface rust forming on my x and y rails...

...they are not defective or sub-par material...

Pull the v-roller wipers (all 8 of them) and refill the felts with oil. WD40, 3 in 1 or other light oil is sufficient.

-B

[twelchPTM]

I have v-roller wipers? are they under the black plastic covers? I've seen guys posts pics of ones they've added but didn't think they were standard issue

[twelchPTM]

nevermind i found them amd boy are they nasty, think maybe i should replace them....

[Brady Watson]

Just clean off the schmutz from the felts, flip them over to get a clean side and reload them with oil. 3 or 4 drops is all that is needed or you'll wind up weeping oil out for the next week or so...

-B

[kubotaman]

I realize there has been numerous discussions on the wiper pads being made. I bought my PRS Alpha new a few years ago but they were not part of the machine at the time. Can the mounts and pads be bought from Shopbot now? I don't want to bother them for no reason.

[adrianm]

They can't unfortunately. I had the same thought when they first came out and emailed ShopBot only to be told they will only fit the latest PRS. Mine is three years old now.

Not sure what is different between the machines though. From what I can see of the wipers in the docs it would only require a couple of holes to be drilled. I'd love to see some close up photos of one.

[Brady Watson]

I'm pretty sure you can just call up and order them...but here's the thing. You'll need to drill & tap some metric threads to mount them. Be sure to tell them your wheel size on your Y axis, as they changed from W2 to W3 somewhere down the line. You can also order them from BWC directly.

-B

[kubotaman]

Okay so one more silly question. I googled BWC and came up with a lot of off the wall sites. Brady what does BWC stand for??

[steve_g]

I think this is who he's referring to... http://www.bwc.com/products/dual-vee.html# (http://www.bwc.com/products/dual-vee.html#)

SG

[rb99]

Rusty Rails would be a great name for a country & western singer.

[sailfl]

T-9 Boeshield works the best for me

[garyc]

Guys...
Here are a couple docs that I give to our Production Support customers during their annual service. They apply to current PRS models and PRT's.

[twelchPTM]

we actually don't run our machine at production levels, sometimes it is several days between uses and even then it is rare that my partfiles keep the machine going a full 8 hrs. I actually do about 80% of that list on a monthly basis(some more often)