I have a very old avid 2x3 system that uses the linear carriages riding on 1/4 inch cold rolled steel. My issue is that dust is landing on the Y axis rolled steel and the bearings in the linear carriage rolls over it, crushes it and sticks it to the bearing or the cold rolled steel, eventually there is enough build up so that it affects the quality of the cut. Scraping it off is painful/tedious. Dust collection helps but is never good enough. Does anybody have any ideas for a solution?
Improve dust collection is my first thought. What are you using now?
I have a 1.5 hp jet cyclone style 4 inch dust collector about 20 ft of 4 inch pvc going to the machine where I have a pwncnc dustboot 10 . The only stuff that escapes is pretty high velocity (goes > 2 ft) finding its way through/maybe under the brushes.
I would probably run an air line to each side and aim a stream of it between the 2 bearings. I think it would keep the area clean.
Can you add a brush or wiper that travels with the carriage to wipe the rails clean ahead of the wheels?
I worry that a wiper will either not get all of the dust, get clogged, or get caught in the bearings.
Lately I have been leaning towards making some sort of dust shield and attaching it to the side of 8020 above the bearings. I tried something like that before and it worked pretty well, but that shield was on top of the 8020, level with the spoil board, and caused problems when I couldn’t surface it to the same height as the spoil board because it was outside the cutting field.