Lubricating rollers for saw infeed/outfeed

[Abner]

Peter S - I like the step through idea. Behind the infeed table is where I store my short pieces and I'm always leaning.

Winchman - that looks good! The safety back bars - nice addition! That shop, floor to ceiling windows! So much daylight, that must be nice.

[winchman]

Windows.... in my dreams. Except for the roof, it's open to the elements and that includes birds, insects, and at times enough wind to make it difficult to weld. Plus, the floor is sloped 1/4" per foot, which causes all sorts of problems. But it sure beats working out in the sun. When I get older, I'm going to take HVAC, Electrical Systems, or Drafting classes, where they have air conditioning.

[garyhlucas]

Igus bearings, cheap, no oil, low tolerance hole, plain steel shaft, can take tremendous abuse like dropping a beam on the rollers, and won't wear out in your life time! I've used thousands over the years none have ever been replaced.

[Peter S]

Peter S - I like the step through idea. Behind the infeed table is where I store my short pieces and I'm always leaning.

Abner,
Another good idea I saw at work was for a combined steel rack and roller table where there is shortage of space. This was a cold saw with roller table at a good working height, say 900mm or more. The steel rack was built directly above the infeed rollers. Lengthwise, the rack ended before the saw, so there was plenty of clearance for the operator. It worked surprisingly well. You could lift steel directly down onto the roller table without leaning. It wasn't used for large steel sections, just the sections the cold saw is best for.

To clarify, imagine a vertical (not angled back) steel rack with horizontal arms sticking out. You place your steel stock on the horizontal arms. On one set of horizontal arms you place your roller bed. It sounds odd, but it works well. In reality, the roller bed and saw had its own legs, but the principle is the same. In some ways it would be better to not have legs, then you could store steel lengths under the roller bed too. Where the saw itself is placed, there is no steel rack overhead, so you can easily see to make measurements etc.

Another thing - because it was in a prototype area where long steel lengths were seldom required, all 6-8 metre steel lengths, when received, were cut in half before putting them onto the steel rack. This meant you could have a reasonably short steel rack and roller bed when length space is a problem.

Winchman,
garylucas's idea of plastic bushes sounds good.

Regarding your steel bushes, I wonder if greased shafts and bushes might be less trouble than oil. If you put the grease nipples there as you proposed, they can at least be driven to greasing them if they become stiff. However, I know once a steel-on-steel bush gets that dry, the grease and dirt form a hard slug in the drilled holes, shafts have to be removed and holes drilled out....another good reason to try plastic?

I am also concerned that grease nipples will be damaged fairly quickly, maybe ok if shaft ends are counterbored so the nipples are recessed.

[garyhlucas]

Our big Marvel Series 8 Mark 1 saw is fed from a steel rack made from pallet rack frames leaned together in an A frame. The material supports are half of a shortened cross bar with tabs on the end. Rollers are bolted on the supports so material can be stored above or below as mentioned.

[Tundra Twin Track]

Here's the section I've finished.





And this is the other half after the supports have been removed so I can shorten them several

They told me yesterday they want a slide-out five-foot extension on the end of this section to support long pieces of flimsy stock. More fun.

These are slide out extensions I made for my 10"x18" bandsaw.