8mm Smooth rod trimming

Hi-

I have purchased a sample of 8mm smooth rod. It is good quality, and cheap, however it has standard +- tolerance, and thus not made for linear motion. Does anyone know how I could cut/remove .1mm off the diameter of the rod reliably and consistently, possible chemical etching??

-Nick

Centerless grinding should do the trick (not something you'll be doing at home).

There's no way chemical etching will leave you with a smooth surface finish. It's not feasible.

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N314
Hi-

I have purchased a sample of 8mm smooth rod. It is good quality, and cheap, however it has standard +- tolerance, and thus not made for linear motion. Does anyone know how I could cut/remove .1mm off the diameter of the rod reliably and consistently, possible chemical etching??

-Nick

You don't (as a mere mortal human). You order the correct rod size/type initially. If you live in the US and aren't already a Misumi customer, you can get $150 of anything they sell until the end of the month. You just have to pay shipping. Search the forum for their promo. $150 will buy you as much precision chromed and hardened linear rod in whatever size machined with whatever options you might want as you might need for the average printer.

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N314
It is good quality, and cheap, however it has standard +- tolerance, and thus not made for linear motion.

Wrong assumption. Every smooth rod can be used for linear motion. The first thing to find out would be wether you want bushings or ball bearings. For ball bearings, a hardened surface is a must, for bushings it's pretty trivial to print ones with a slightly bigger diameter or let the tolerance adjustment do its work.

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