Let's Talk Way Wipers

[jbolt]

Recently added felt wipers to my 1340GT lathe, the stock rubber wipes on the carriage do a good job of wiping away chips but do not retain the oil.

I'm pretty sure since our lathes are made in the same factory that they use the same rubber wiper. The majority of oil loss is along the long edges of the sliding surfaces. Without some kind of feed system to the felt I'm curious how much they would contribute to retaining oil. Now that you have first hand experience using felt how much do you think the felt adds to retaining oil?

The tailstock had no wipers and you could often feel grit getting underneath it.

Mine is the same way. I mentioned this to Matt at PM. He sent me an extra set of rubber wipers to put on the tailstock. I could make an argument here for felt since there are no oil ports on the tailstock base and it would at least provide some light lubrication. I plan on adding oil ports to the tailstock when I install the rubber wipers. My previous am much inferior lathe to my current one had wipers and oil ports on the tailstock. I wonder how common that is? Another thing on the to do list.

Delrin should not have any wear affect on the bed.

As long as they are a good fit to minimize the size/amount a debris that could get swept underneath the Delrin should have no effect on the ways. [/QUOTE]

 

[jbolt]

To the original poster.

Your ultimate concept of having 3 piece assembly with both a Felt Oiler and Rubber Wiper held in place by a fixed fully encasing Retainer was part of the Atlas Lathe design since pretty much day one.

That's interesting. Why is the rubber wiper inboard of the felt oiler?

 

[mksj]

Felt retains the oil, so I saturate the carriage pads with way oil in addition to the oil ports. I find the rear oiler on the carriage is very resistant to pumping with an oil can, not does it seem to be on the bed rail. The front flows nicely. I do not see that rubber wipes do anything to retain oil, only clear debris. On the tailstock I am mostly concerned about debris getting underneath, the current system should help mitigate that. Because the tailstock is not held down the the bed, at the beginning of the day and 2-3x during I pump oil under the tailstock so it floats on a film. The felt should also retains some of the oil, and should prevent further contamination of grit under the metal sliding surfaces. At least the felt has some give to it, but I think it is probably a good practice to change the felt at least annually when you do the oil change.

I just installed everything yesterday, but so far seems to work OK. The tailstock is cleanly an improvement. Time will tell.

 

[4GSR]

Here's a catalog that contains many different designs of way wipers. I have used a few of these in years past for different applications. Some of these are available from McMaster-Carr, which is where I purchased the last strip of material I used.

http://www.cqm-inc.com/uploads/1/5/9/4/15948660/cqm-wipers-2012.pdf

http://www.ustsubaki.com/standard-way-wipers.html

 

[Koi]

Off topic abit .how long would the ways last if i were to pump a generous amount of way oil? Say a squirt every minute.

 

[LVLAaron]

Felt retains the oil, so I saturate the carriage pads with way oil in addition to the oil ports. I find the rear oiler on the carriage is very resistant to pumping with an oil can, not does it seem to be on the bed rail. The front flows nicely. I do not see that rubber wipes do anything to retain oil, only clear debris. On the tailstock I am mostly concerned about debris getting underneath, the current system should help mitigate that. Because the tailstock is not held down the the bed, at the beginning of the day and 2-3x during I pump oil under the tailstock so it floats on a film. The felt should also retains some of the oil, and should prevent further contamination of grit under the metal sliding surfaces. At least the felt has some give to it, but I think it is probably a good practice to change the felt at least annually when you do the oil change.

I just installed everything yesterday, but so far seems to work OK. The tailstock is cleanly an improvement. Time will tell.

Has time told you anything? I clean my ways obsessively - I do not want any grit or chips under the tailstock.

 

[Ultradog MN]

My lathe will be 80 years old in May of this year.
The ways are worn but still in suprisingly good shape.
I just got done replacing all the felt wipers - carriage, cross slide, taper attachment, and tailstock.
I bought the real wool stuff from Durofelt and cut them myself.
I also made sure the pump in the apron is still pumping oil to all the right places.
It is inherent to machines that have metal sliding against metal that you will get wear no matter what you do. I will do what I can to mitigate that wear but I am not going to obsess about it.
What worked for 80 years will continue to work for me.
By the way, I ran an ad in craigslist wanted section for a leather punch. Older fellow called me and sold it for for $5. Sure was handy for punching those screw holes in the felt.

 

[Ken226]

I 3d printed a few dozen using rubbery TPU and harder PLA, glued together. I should have enough in my parts drawer to las a couple hundred years.

 

[LVLAaron]

I 3d printed a few dozen using rubbery TPU and harder PLA, glued together. I should have enough in my parts drawer to las a couple hundred years.

Sell me a set?

 

[Cheeseking]

Interesting thread
Probably 10 years ago I made a mold to make the real deal wipers for my Colchester out of polyurethane. It’s a messy pita process pouring castable PU in small volumes. I sold 4-5 sets to people who begged me for some but it wasn’t worth my time and hassle for what hobbyists want to pay so I quit that. Recently made a few from silicone and some 3D printed ones but the pla materials most cheap printers use isn’t ideal including the copycat ones all over ebay for $25
Without much ‘flex’ they are more like scrapers that push the big stuff out of the way but not the harmful grit.

.