on the subject of bearings and rails

I see piles of server rails go to the dumps, many of them are very well constructed and meant to hold a lot of weight, they have ball bearings etc.

Has anyone tried upcycling these as 3d printer rails?

You mean something like drawer sliders? WolfStrap makes use of them.

---

Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

I suspect that even with the high quality and heavy weight rating, they will still not have the desired stability for a large reprap. But as traumflug said, they would be great for a repstrap. I do not know where they are being dumped locally to give them a try, but if I did it sounds like a better solution then the drawer slides I could by at Home Depot.

Mike

yeah, duh... drawer slides, high quality, with springs, ball bearings, meant for about 100 pounds. wolfstrap is a good example. I was thinking along the lines of more reprapish printing parts to work with it etc. because we already have to buy rails and tones of bearings. I like prusajr s idea of the bushings, haven't tried it out yet, and I've seen the linear bearing variations... but to me the server slides / drawer slides would actually be fewer / cheaper parts than the current solution, which I know is always a goal. I guess I was already answered... it's been used in wolfstrap, and not with printed parts type machine.

thanks.