Need material for way wipers

Hello, all,

I am doing the last little touches of rebuilding my Sheldon 15" lathe, and need the material for the way wipers. I have the original, it is a very dense and firm felt, about

1/4" thick. The felt I can get in the local fabric store seems way too flimsy for this use. I looked in J&L, MSC etc. and didn't find any bulk material like this (to my surprise). Does anyone know where to get such material?

Any other suggestions for the best and most effective way wiper system would be appreciated. I am thinking of making some scrapers out of brass shim stock to almost scrape the ways clean, keeping most of the chips out of the felt. I thought that bending the shim stock outward a little would scoop the big chips away while not trapping small chips between the scraper and the felt.

Thanks,

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson
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Go to a thrift store and look through the lady's hat section. You may find some made from thick heavy felt. Also a possibility is a discarded Texas Stetson (sp?)

Reply to
Terry Mayhugh

NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO~~!!!!!!!!!!

Sacrilige..........choke...gurgle.....

Gunner, a Resistol man, t though does have a Stetson or two.

"Aren't cats Libertarian? They just want to be left alone. I think our dog is a Democrat, as he is always looking for a handout" Unknown Usnet Poster

Heh, heh, I'm pretty sure my dog is a liberal - he has no balls. Keyton

Reply to
Gunner

Mc master carr has a good selection of felt

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Reply to
TLKALLAM8

Hi Jon Go get some felt insoles for boots . One pair should give you a lifetime supply . Works fine in my lathe . Ken Cutt

Reply to
Ken Cutt

You should be able to find rolls of felt available in different widths and thicknesses in hardware departments of stores that sell weatherstripping/winterizing products. Frost King is one brand, I think. The last roll I got was about 1-1/4" w x

3/16" thick.

WB .................

Reply to
Wild Bill

Sure. McMaster-Carr

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Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

You can fold the fabric store felt until it is the thickness you desire. Anybody know if fabric store felt will react/break down when it comes in contact with way oil?

Nice idea.

Reply to
John L. Weatherly

On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 08:38:31 -0500, "John L. Weatherly" I am thinking of making

My Elliott mill has just such an arrangement, AFAIK fitted from new

Cheers Tim

Tim Leech Dutton Dry-Dock

Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs

Reply to
timleech

I'm doing the exact same thing for a lathe I'm rebuilding. The old wipers are not felt but appear to be a polyurethane type of material. The replacements I am making are cut from a sheet of polyurethane from McMaster Carr.

The machine is a Clausing Colchester with an integral lubrication system for the saddle and cross slide. My guess is that the poly way wipers act as a squeege to keep way lube under the carraige and swarf out.

Without a way to internally lube the ways, poly doesn't seem like a good idea as it would squeege all the lube off the way before it got to where it needs to be. Felt will allow a certain amount of oil to pass trough while sweeping swarf away.

You can get medium to hard felt at home centers and hardware stores. Weather stripping is a common application as well as little squares or buttons used for bottom of chairs so they don't scratch hardwood floors. These can usually be found in sheets as well that are cut to size.

Reply to
gradstdnt

Brownells sells wool felt in 3 different densities: see

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Randy

Reply to
Randal O'Brian

That would be a terrible thing to do to a lathe! :-)

Harold

Reply to
Harold & Susan Vordos

A city wide blackout at Thu, 08 Jan 2004 07:32:03 GMT did not prevent Gunner from posting to rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

This assumes that there exists such an item as a "discarded Texas Stetson"

Like a lost & found in a border town, asking about a diamond ring ...

Reply to
pyotr filipivich

Thanks, everyone, for all the suggestions. It took a while to scour all of McMaster-Carr's choices in this. It turns out I needed it 3/8" thick, which narrowed the choices a bit. This stuff is EXPENSIVE, too! It was $3x.xx for a 10' roll

1.5" wide! The sheets were $56.xx, so I'm glad they had the rolls, too.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

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