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Re-vitalizing an X-Y table

Hello,

Last night while looking for a sheet metal roll former that Dad said was up in the loft somewhere, I ran across an old X-Y table, or at least something that resembles an X-Y table. It's fairly small, the table is about 2" x 2" with 2 t-slots in it, the bottom slide has around a 3" travel and the top slide might be a bit more. The top slide can also be rotated to any arbitrary angle relative to the bottom slide. Through prodigious use of penetrating fluid and a razor blade to scrape dust and crud off, I got everything to move fairly smoothly once again and managed to partially dissassemble it to get a better idea of it's condition. The worst part of this table is the tail end of the upper slide is extremely chewed up. I don't know what it was used for in the past, but there are gouges from something like a saw blade going from side-to-side (maybe about 1/16" deep at the worst), and the tail end (away from the hand crank) looks to actually be cracked for about an inch. The table will still slide over this area, it just takes a smidge more force.

I'm more of a woodworker than a metalsmith (the most metalwork I've done in a day so far was [OA] welding up some spiderweb wall sconces out of

3/16" rod) right now, but I would like to know how I would get this table back into useable condition and what kind of grease/oil I should use on it.

Thanks, Mike

-- Natharias at lycos dot com

Reply to
Mike S.
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You aren't going to like this. I vote for tossing the thing. It's too small to do you any good.

Grant

Mike S. wrote:

Reply to
Grant Erwin

It sounds like the positioner from a wafer dicing saw, used in the semiconductor industry for cutting apart the chips on semi wafers. (They do this a different way, now, that is simpler and leaves no kerf.)

I have no idea what you would use such a small XY table for, unless you are making watch or miniature parts. Without more info, I can't even recommend a lube. If it uses a dovetail-type slide, way oil is probably the best. But, an SAE 20 W oil should do quite well, too.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

There's a good chance that this may be a compound slide for a lathe. See for example:

Jim

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Reply to
jim rozen

Actually, that looks extremely similar to the one I found. I don't know who made mine though since the only markings I've found so far is a "2

0" stamped underneath the bottom slide. Kinda interesting since the first thing that came to mind when I saw it was seeing if I could fit it to my wood lathe. I've been meaning to get pics of it, but have not been able to do so yet.

Jon Elson: Yes, it does have dovetail slides.

Grant Erwin: Maybe it is too small, but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in seeing what I can do with it.

Thanks for the help all, Mike

Reply to
Mike S.

Grant was right, that thing is useless. Send it to me and you won't need to worry about having something useless hanging around. ERS

Reply to
Eric R Snow

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