SG ballway cage material

[Cadillac]

I have a project making new ballway cages for my surface grinder. My grinder doesn’t use balls it uses .750 cylindrical rollers that are about .700 long. Grinder has a V rail and a flat rail. I am wanting to make new cages for the new rollers I have made. Looking at McMaster their is a lot of different plastics. My question is what would be the best material to use. Needs to be durable, slippery, stiff, and last. Do I use garolite, acrylic, Teflon, uhmw polyethylene, delrin, idk?? Any thoughts.

 

[macardoso]

I've seen cages made from G5 Phenolic sheets. They are cotton and phenolic resin (won't scratch your bearings like fiberglass sheets might) and are very stiff and low friction. The latest pair of higher end AC bearings I bought came with phenolic cages. Also oil/grease resistant.

 

[benmychree]

I'd also use the phenolic mentioned above; it is commonly used even for lining sliding surfaces; Rich King lately talked about replacing it under a large lathe carriage.

 

[Cadillac]

I don’t see anything listed as g5. Good point about fiberglass. Am I wrong about something stiff?? I would think limp material isn’t good. Original cage material is .120 thick with .750 squares cut out of it with maybe .125 between each opening. To me phenolic is a general term. I’ll try and post what I’ve picked but haven’t ordered yet.

 

[macardoso]

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

Goes under the trade name Garolite CE

 

[macardoso]

Avoid the Garolite G-10 FR4 material (used in circuit boards) as this contains fiberglass

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr is the complete source for your plant with over 595,000 products. 98% of products ordered ship from stock and deliver same or next day.

www.mcmaster.com

 

[Cadillac]

Thank you I was looking at that page. Garolite was confusing me I saw in the description also known as phenolic. Not knowing what I needed it was/is confusing to a point. Stay away from fiberglass got it thank you.

 

[benmychree]

Grade CE is a good choice.

 

[hman]

Quick word about composites ... There are two materials in play here. One component is the fiber. For instance, you can get phenolic with paper, cotton, linen (I think), or fiberglass (I think). The other component is the binder. "Phenolic" means it's a phenol/formaldehyde polymer - one of the very first manufactured polymers. Another, used for fiberglass boats and a huge number of other products, is polyester resin - the kind you can buy at a hardware store, as a can of resin and a small tube of hardener/catalyst/activator. A third polymer used in some applications is epoxy (as in epoxy fiberglass).

As others have mentioned, you want to get cotton (or linen?) phenolic. The phenolic binder has good heat resistance and dimensional stability. The cotton fiber is strong, but gentle on the moving parts it comes in contact with.

 

[benmychree]

The C or CE grade is canvas, the linen grade is the finer grade, might be better for the intended use.