Make Sliding Elements
flickr:3995072934

Overview

Sliding element is made from square aluminium tube, UHMWPE channel and 6-32 nylon screws. It consists of 1½" long mounting section(s) and 1" long sliding section(s).

The sliding section consists of three UHMWPE angle pads placed in three corners of the tube. The pads completely cover the outer side of the rail. The pad overhangs are pushed towards the rail by 6-32 screws, which regulates the friction. 2 (out of 4) sides of the sliding section can be mounted to the perforated angle or to another sliding element.

The mounting section has a pattern of holes on each side of the tube to mount the lead nut, perforated angle or another sliding element.

There are 3 sizes of the sliding element:

  • 3.5": sliding section / mounting section / sliding section
  • 2.5": sliding section / mounting section
  • 1": sliding section

Materials

  • Aluminium square tube, 1.5", 1/8" thick
  • UHMWPE channel, 1¼"x¾", 1/8" thick
  • Nylon screws, 6-32, 1/4"

Cheaper and more widely available machine screws can be used instead of Nylon screws, but it's a matter of convenience of the assembly - steel screws need to be cut with hacksaw/file instead of the knife.

Source Files

Making

Make the tube piece from SVG or PDF template, according to the instructions in Howto section.

Make the UHMW PE pads:
IMG_0278.preview.jpg

Using a knife or hacksaw, cut off a couple of 1/2" pieces of UHMWPE channel. UHMWPE is pretty hard to cut with a knife, so be careful and don't place body parts in the way of the blade. Coping saw works well for cutting UHMW PE.

Cut the pieces in half in the middle of the base, this will make four angles 3/4" x ~5/8".

Assembly

flickr:4184420130

Parts:

  • Sliding element tube
  • 1 center UHMW pad, 2 side UHMW pads for each sliding section
  • 6-32 1/4" nylon screws

If your pads come in a strip, you'll need to cut them off with a knife.

Tools:

  • Small flat screwdriver
  • Knife
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License