Dovetail slide??

If you mean can you make a male and female dovetail to fit to close tolerances the answer is yes, but is very dependent on machining skills.

Not a task for beginners.

Do you intend that the two parts of the slide would be identical? Instead of having a male and female slide, are you looking for a single part for both sides?

Yes, I was intending to make 2 pieces of the same part and they would fit together as a dovetail.

I was thinking it might be a "double dovetail". The side profile may look like this, excuse the ascii drawing...

-------- | | | | |/| | | | | | |\| | | | | | |/| | | | |

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Does this make sense? So that I can "mass-produce" this thing at a lower cost... :-)

It might work just great. It depends on what it is going to be used for, and how the parts are going to be made.

Can I guess, that the parts may be extruded? That is why having them the same will save money?

It shouldn't be a problem. Just a matter of adjusting the fit of the dove tails.

Thanks! If I machine this out of aluminum, is there an alternative to grease or oil that can be used to lubricate but less messy?

Teflon coating perhaps? Maybe some sort of dry-lube. Anodizing might be enough. You definitely need some sort of lubing as "raw" aluminum against aluminum will seize up in a blink of an eye.

Sanford Hard Coat.

I kid you not, we used it on aluminum gibbs for 16 90lb P-20 slides in an injection mold and much to everyone's surprise it is holding up extremely well and cost considerably less than bearing bronze hardened steel gibbs.

Check with the plater for thickness and tolerance. Unlike anodizing it adds material.

You could use Teflon impregnated hard anodize

BTW, I hope all of the load applied to the slides is holding the slide in the gib block otherwise the center gibs are going to wear quickly.

R. W>>> On Tue, 1 Jun 2010 10:24:43 -0700 (PDT),Bo-Ming Tong

I've heard good things about this nickel teflon plating:

Best, Steve

Ya you are right. It is 2 against 1 so the center gibs take the worst beating, right?