Air bearings ???

Slide a scraped-flat lump of cast iron across a large surface plate and you realise that air bearings are quite possible. The finishes and clearances required are certainly achievable by model engineers, although a lack of cylindrical grinders makes life harder than it would otherwise be.

One point to be born in mind with air bearings is that the load rating is smaller than that of oil lubricated bearings in proportion to the lower viscosity of the lubricant.

Mark Rand (who hasn't, yet, built any. But did go on a course about them some years back) RTFM

Being a tool and cutter grinder, I had an air bearing (when I was in industry). Great toy...

Watch for water in the airline. Puts a stop to everything.

The one I had had only a selected number of collets, yet our CNCs were using all sorts of sized cutters. I made another arbor to use the CNC collets. The first one got bent during case hardening, so I had to make another.

I will be having a go at building my own air bearing sometime soon. I am keeping an eye open for suitable materials.

Regards, Dave.

In the book "the shop wisdom of Philip Duclos" he describes building a "floating" end mill sharpener which has an air bearing -a home built one, not a bought in item. Can't comment on if it's any good as I havent built one, but the rest of his stuff is pretty good. In fact I would highly reccomend the book, it isn't cheap at just over 30 quid from campden, but it has some great stuff -especially if you like IC engines.

Regards

Kevin