Budget linear rail part 3: what are they made of... spark test

[@bliksemdonder5624]

Alex, keep up the good work. Most people are unaware that the spark test even exists. Watching this video brought back good memories. When I was a student there was an older gentleman in the tool room that could Identify all the rusty bits and pieces of steel in the shop using the spark test. When quizzing him about this it turned out that he was from a long line of tool makers with more than 40 years experience himself before he retired.

[@AlexKenis]

Nice, you never know what kind of deep life experience someone might have. Retired tradesmen are some of my favorite people, because they have a lifetime of knowledge and tricks, and it beings as much joy for them to talk about their work as it does me to learn about it

[@ThePhilbox]

Time for part 4....results!!! how's the different lube holding up? Very much enjoy your content and have learned a lot...Thanks!!

[@zarboov88]

Very cool. it’s definitely easier to watch a new vid when it’s short and focused. Detailed, longer vids are also great, but they’re taxing time wise, and mentally.

[@rbtoj]

Wow, nice test. I just bought a couple of rails myself and was wondering how I could identify the metal. Thanks.

[@avejst]

Thanks for sharing :-) Interesting test :-)

[@peteabc1]

Fact is in 3d printer they've almost 0 load, but it's more important how smooth they are. And problem is they're not (was not cleaning them yet). I'll use them in my 3d printer build because they're dead simple, but am not expecting much..

[@nimanouri9420]

Why don't do a simple hardness test (e.g. Vickers test) , that will give some scientific precise info about the mechanical prop of the material if you have access to that.

[@ChiralSymmetry]

I would guess that a Rockwell C Hardness test would be much more available than a Vickers hardness test?

[@nimanouri9420]

@@ChiralSymmetry if you noticed the sentence correctly it is said e.g.

[@jothain]

My exact thought. Yeah sparks can give very rough estimate of type of steel, but it's totally fucking useless information in situations like this. Also if I heard correctly he referred stainless to be somehow a good thing rails, which makes absolutely no sense to me. It's one of the shitties things to use in so to say kinematic applications.

[@SportsRush-mn8zk]

@@jothain I know this is late but would you be able to elaborate in more detail on how to properly test/see rails? For 3D printing a lot of people say stainless-steel rails are 'betteer' than bearing steel.

[@docmortal]

Hey bud do you know if the chinese rails or carriages have different dimensions.? I couldnt find anything online I decided to try some genuine mgn12h hiwin carriages on my chinese rails and they are completely loose. I figured they are using the same specs but I was totally wrong. Thx for the informative videos by the way!

[@cthulpiss]

As much as ambiguous these descriptors are, "tool steel" (say, M2 HSS) is quite different then bearing steel (say, 52100). It would interesting to see that type of comparison - although I cannot say is these two give different results with spark test.

[@SyFyBry]

Very much appreciated this

[@unionse7en]

the material is not as significant as the surface properties, you know it is some kind of steel, just do a rudimentary comparative hardness test (mohs) as that is mostly what is of concern.

[@chinaminiyumako1415]

If the metal glow green-blue in the dark after that test... maybe is metalic uranium, and you're finished.

[@AlexKenis]

'3.6 Roentgen... not great but also not terrible'

[@danielkrah5129]

thx

[@jothain]

I've now look through all these railvids. I'm quite disappointed to only see some caliber measurements of balls and general, though ok information about lubricants. What I'm disappointed is that I didn't notice anything about rail quality, straightness of them out of box and real like dial gauge type measuring of tolerances. Also it's useless as somewhere was said that cheapo Chinese rails can deform when tightening. What a load of bullshit. You can destroy high quality rails as well over tightening them. There isn't a bearing in this planet which isn't destroyed by overtightening or overloading. Foundation they're put on defines the straightness, though they should be pretty good out of box as said. Rails most definitely haven't ever been designed to be attached to some shitty aluminium extrusion profile. They're meant to be mounted on stiff, hard and machined surfaces.

[@MonguzTea]

I work in long term machine maintenance and all i can say is these rails are absolute shite. They are worse than a 20 year old proper rail which ran 24/7 without lube.