Are gibs supposed to have a "rough" surface?

[lSherlockl]

Hello,

Was doing some prep work for the big move of pm-932v to the basement (de-palleting) and also had to pull the table.

Being a new to this kind of machinery I had a question about the gib, pictured is my x axis gib. And that is the face that mates to the male side of the dovetail on the table. The side facing the other way so to the front side of the saddle is just smooth with two marks from the x axis locks. And the narrow top and bottom faces are lightly ribbed

Now I know scraping is a thing and I understand that concept this just seemed quite rough/aggresive which just had me curious If this is right/expected or if gibs are normally scrapped. I feel like it must be scraped or some attempt at something akin to scraping given the haphazard orientations but just didn't quite look as much like what I had seen when reading about scraping.

I can try and get a better image showing more detail as it seems pretty pronounced.

I haven't checked it for flatness yet waiting for my stone to hopefully show up, but I guess my bandsaw table should give me a rough idea.

 

[Braeden P]

that scraping looks ok it doesn't have to be pretty and a band saw table will be nowhere near close to a surface plate and will not give you accurate reading and you will get a different reading everytime.

 

[markba633csi]

That's OK, a perfectly mirror smooth surface is not desired or needed
-Mark

 

[silence dogood]

Those gibs look perfect. You want tiny spaces like so that there are places to hold the film of oil.

 

[lSherlockl]

thanks for the info!

it just seemed much deeper or aggressive than expected. From what I had read or seen pictures of scraping anyhow, there is a little bit of scraping on the Y axis ways that i can see and that is much much much shallower/finer.

I don't think there is a great way to measure the depth of the scraping as well the gib is angled, but ill just sanity check the surface is nominally flat against the surface stone once it gets here, and just leave it alone.

 

[francist]

No expert here but something about those marks look more like grinder tracks than hand scraping. Here’s a close-up. Am I imagining things?

-frank

 

[graham-xrf]

It has no characteristic consistent with hand scraping, nor even Biax-type machine scraping. To be honest, my first impression was etched exposed crystalline pattern as one might see on zinc, but I think I agree that the surface was probably roughed up with a grinder. I guess that approach would work, and @markba633csi is right in that you do not want a fine finish flat surface there.

The traditionalists do like moon-crescent flaking for a nice appearance oil retention surface, but such is not actually necessary. Nobody can see in there.

 

[lSherlockl]

No expert here but something about those marks look more like grinder tracks than hand scraping. Here’s a close-up. Am I imagining things?

-frank
View attachment 364714

yeah that was really why the question was raised in the first place ill try and get a better close up snap.

i feel my right angle grinder or Dremel skills would be above the fairly wild variation that at least "appears" to be by eye or running a finger over it.

But so long as its flat as other said it should be fine, I may run a stone over it if any of it seems too rough

 

[Janderso]

Maybe the manufacturer is trying to attain the distinction of having hand scraped gibs?
They are interesting.

 

[davidpbest]

That looks like a pretty crude attempt to fit a gib to the dovetails. If that were mine, I would stone it lightly to remove any burrs, then check flatness and percentage contact against a surface plate with Prussian Blue.