Help identifying these linear rails and bearings.

[MikeInOr]

I inherited these linear rails and bearings from my father several years ago. I finally have an application that they would be perfect for. I actually have enough bearings for my application but I will have 4 left over 60" rails without any bearings when I am finished. I would like to purchase additional bearings so I can make use of the remaining bearings some day.






Yeah, a smart person would have measured the rails so they could post the dimensions... it was late and I was tired. I will try to measure them tomorrow and post them.

Thank you for any help!

Also, I think I will by using 12-24 cap head hex bolts to mount these rails. Of course my 12-24 tap is broken. Where is a good place to buy a package of 10 or a dozen 12-24 taps for a reasonable price. The $5 - $15 they are asking on Amazon for a single tap that I know is a cheap Chinese tap despite the name on them seems ridiculous!

 

[projectnut]

I can't help with the bearings and rails, but there are several listings for 12-24 taps on eBay. They aren't as cheap as they were pre-pandemic, but there are still some reasonable prices at less than $4.00 per unit. There are currently 454 listings, but many are cheap offshore or lower quality US and European brands. I would stick with the HSS professional brands like Morse, Guhring, Greenfield, Nachi, Emuge, and others.

Here are a couple of the listings:

MORSE 12-24 HSS Spiral Point Plug Tap List 2070x , EDP 34247 (USA) | eBay

<p>LOT of 4- Morse cutting tools 12-24 spirial point steam oxide tap. EDP 34147. Unopened. </p>

www.ebay.com

Morse 12-24 Plug Tap Spiral Pointed NC Taps HSS 2 Flute 12 Pack USA Made | eBay

CHAMFER: PLUG.

www.ebay.com

I have bought quite a few taps from ztsupply over the years. They've always had good products and reasonable prices.

I noticed the saw in the picture is similar to my 14" Delta 33-400. Yours has some additional bracing near the bottom of the legs. I'm assuming it's for greater stability when moving the machine from one location to another. I'm considering something similar as well as adding plates to the bottom of the legs for casters. I recently purchased a set like these for another machine and am considering them for the Delta saw.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B7Q21VB?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Can you post a couple more pictures with more detail of the lower end?

 

[toprecyler]

If you stick to a large well known supply warehouse, you may find a better quality tap offerings. I checked McMaster Carr, and their prices were in the range you listed. But I would think that they will have a bit more quality bits to offer. They will not want there name associated with the cheap Chinese items and upset their biggest customers with complaints.

My work likes buying the three pack sets, with a starting, plug, and bottom tap. Nice to have all three, so you can use the one needed for the job.






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mmcmdl]

I've got those bearings along with slides . Pretty sure they are the same and will get a pic today . Plan on making up a sliding table for a saw ? That was my reason for holding onto these things but I'll probably never get a round tu-it . And nut , I have sets of those rollers if you need them . Another project that went bust .

 

[mmcmdl]

Eh . Not the same . Sorry , thought I could help . You may want to check out Thomson Industries , one of our affiliates . They most likely have the correct linear bearings you need . I may have a few but would have to dig in .

thomson linear slides - Google Search

 

[MikeInOr]

I can't help with the bearings and rails, but there are several listings for 12-24 taps on eBay. They aren't as cheap as they were pre-pandemic, but there are still some reasonable prices at less than $4.00 per unit. There are currently 454 listings, but many are cheap offshore or lower quality US and European brands. I would stick with the HSS professional brands like Morse, Guhring, Greenfield, Nachi, Emuge, and others.

Morse 12-24 Plug Tap Spiral Pointed NC Taps HSS 2 Flute 12 Pack USA Made | eBay

CHAMFER: PLUG.

www.ebay.com

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for. A 12 pack of decent taps at a decent price!

I drilled pilot holes for the holes that will be tapped with a cobalt drill bit. I picked up a 20 packs of 1/8". 3/16" and 1/4" cobalt bits off of Amazon a while ago and this was my first chance to use them. GEESH! With a drop of motor oil drilling the soft steel was like drilling wood. I have never drilled steel so smoothly. I was likewise hoping to pick up a bulk pack of 12 - 24 taps for a reasonable price per tap!

Can you post a couple more pictures with more detail of the lower end?

I am just finishing up the refurb of my Delta RAS. I think I will start a thread on the rebuild and I will send you a PM when I post it.

 

[projectnut]

I've been purchasing taps, dies, and drill bits almost exclusively from eBay for the last 15 years or so. The prices at industrial retail outlets have skyrocketed to the point that most are unaffordable. You do have to be careful when shopping eBay. Many vendors aren't knowledgeable as to the different styles and types of taps and dies available to the industry. The most common mistakes are confusing the spiral point and spiral flute styles. Others have no idea what the GH numbers mean, and some are even confused about the differences between hand and machine taps.

The world of taps and dies is far more complex than many people realize. It can be relatively simple to industrial vendors, but an unfathomable black hole to the uninformed. Unfortunately, some eBay vendors fall into that uninformed category. In the last couple years there have been more than a dozen threads on this board involving the intracies of taps and dies. While I am no expert on the subject, I did get quite an education when working in a machine design shop.

Like many on this board I stock a wide variety of taps. Over the years I've needed sizes from 00 to 2". I generally buy those under 1/2" by the package. I use the old inventory standard of order points and order quantities. In my case the order point on the smaller items is when I get down to 2 of any particular size, and the order quantity is a package of 10 or 12. Larger sizes are usually ordered by the single piece.

I use a lot of them on older machine tools and farm and landscaping machinery. Many old-time vendors of these types of equipment used proprietary threaded fasteners in an attempt to corner the replacement parts market. To that end I have quite a number of obsolete and discontinued thread pitch dies and taps.

 

[MikeInOr]

Can you post a couple more pictures with more detail of the lower end?

Sorry, the lower end is very simplistic:

Just 2 x 6's under the stand on each side and another 2 x 6 on top connecting the 2 sides.




This is the stand that I have under my 47 RedStar 50A radial arm saw. I built it 30+ years ago and always meant to put a piece of plywood in the bottom and some storage under there. For the Delta stand I just left a front cross piece off so I can wheel what ever under the saw for storage.



I REALLY like how the casters turned out on this home made stand. There is just enough flex in the angle iron supporting the casters that the casters all level to the floor and fell like the pretty much equally support the stand. When I first put the casters under the Delta factor stand it would wobble. After the weight of the saw it does level itself but I still like my design better.

I am rebuilding the Delta RAS and it is intended to replace my beloved Redstar 50A RAS. The extra 6" of cut is the reason for changing to the Long Arm Delta RAS. I built the stand on the Redstar so the table was about belly button height. When I had the Delta 50C together the table was WAY too close to the ground! There is no way my back would be happy stooping over for every cut!

So I decided to Put the Delta 50C on my stand. After shuffling around the saws I decided to put casters underneath the Delta stand so I could move it easier for sale. After I put the casters under the stand... WALLA... it is now the perfect height so I shuffled the saws back to their original stands. After I am satisfied with the Delta 50C RAS I will offer the Redstar for sale without a stand.

In 30 years I have never had a problem with the casters on the home made stand wanting to move around at all when working with / on the RAS. The casters I have under the Delta stand DO TEND TO MOVE when doing stuff like swinging the arm on the RAS. This will need to be addressed.

 

[MikeInOr]

Plan on making up a sliding table for a saw ? That was my reason for holding onto these things but I'll probably never get a round tu-it . And nut , I have sets of those rollers if you need them . Another project that went bust .

No, I am embarrassed to post that I am making a sliding table for my Delta 50C radial arm saw.

(Are you done laughing yet?)

I have had my Redstar 50A RAS for 30 years and I absolutely LOVE it! One of the quirks of the Redstar 50A is that it has no neck. There is no way to turn the carriage 90 degrees to do rip cuts without also rotating the turret arm:





So how do you set the rip width on the Redstar 50A when the whole turret arm is rotated? Well, you put the table on slides:




With an ACME screw to set the position of the table:


The blue plate keeps the rails and Acme screw together. The upper hex shaft sets the table position and the lower hex shaft sets the arm/saw height:


In 30 years I have NEVER ONCE been tempted to RIP on my Redstar RAS. Not that I am afraid, I grew up ripping on my fathers 10" Delta turret arm RAS and the worst thing about ripping on a RAS is the amount of saw dust the "pusher" eats. Even if I had the correct kickback pawls for my Redstar RAS I have a table saw now which I mostly just use for ripping.

What I have found out is that even though I don't RIP on my RAS a sliding table is INCREDIABLY USEFULL on a RAS. I find I move the table on my Redstar in and out all the time! It is so useful to have this capability that I felt if I didn't have it on my new Delta 50C that I would not be able to give up my Redstar:



So here is the plan:


Mount some linear rails that I have lying around to the table mounts on the Delta 50C RAS then mount the table on top of the linear rails. I haven't exactly figured out how the table will mount to the linear rail bearing or how the table will be adjusted in an out while staying in place once it has been set.

This is the side view of the table on my Redstar RAS when it was together:


The 2 x 6 (jointed flat and planed square) is screwed to the table all along the back of the table (only the sacrificial top of the table can be seen here, the table is underneath the sacrificial MDF). The 2 x 4 (jointed flat and planed square) is just screwed into the 2 x 6 in four places and sits on top of the table. On the very first cut with this fence the 2 x 6 is cut 2/3rds of the way through and the 2 x 4 is cut ALL the way through. Periodically (usually when I change blades) I remove the 4 screws from the 2 x 4, butt the two halves of the 2 x 4 together then screw them back into the 2 x 6. After the first fresh cut I have a perfect blade spaced gap in the 2 x 4 which probably helps with tear out but even more importantly gives me a perfect blade width guide in the fence for lining up cuts! To me, for a RAS, THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER!!! ... and merits the effort to make a sliding table.

Most RAS fences have a (or multiple) spacers behind the fence that can be moved forwards of the fence for different cuts:


When making an angled cut (the arm swung to a 45 or other angle) the saw blade is moved forwards (because of trigonometry) and the fence then has to be moved forwards. (I did this a million times on my dad's 10" Delta RAS). Most of the time the fence is left in the forwards most position which eats up crosscut capacity and is then moved rearward to maximize crosscut capacity for a wide board. With a sliding table you just move the whole fence forwards with the table. This allows for my upper configuration of a fence that is permanently attached to the table (which also adds support and rigidity to the table).

It may not sound like much but after 30+ years of having a sliding table on my radial arm saw it is hard to imagine life without one!

 

[projectnut]

Thanks for the update on the rebuild of your Delta RAS. I'm attempting to put my 14" machine on a set of casters to make it easier to move around the shop. At first, I thought I could just muscle it around for the few times it should need to be moved. I quickly found out at 750 lbs. it wasn't as easy to move as I expected. The legs are only 1/8" sheet metal and tend to splay apart when attempting to slide it on a concrete floor.

To that end I am making a 1/4" thick pad to fit under each leg to support a caster. To add rigidity, I'll put a 2' x 2" x3/16" length of angle iron between each set of legs. Hopefully it will be enough to make the saw easier to move and more stable when doing so. The casters are supposedly rated to hold 2,400 lbs. They have pads that can be extended to keep the machine from moving when extended and allow easy movement when retracted.

Here are a few pictures of the pads, angle iron stabilizers, and casters mocked up on the bench for verification of fit. The next step is to clean the rust off the pads and paint everything before installation. Installation might be a little time consuming. When making the initial measurements of the leg spacing and hole locations on the bottom, I found that not all measurements are the same. I'm attributing that to the flexibility of the sheet metal, and the fact that it's been dragged across the floor a few times.

The pictures of the plates in the saw are the ones I referred to in another thread about bandsaw blades. They were originally pieces of 8" and 8 1/2" wide plate. They were all cut with a 10/14 tpi blade on the saw in the picture.