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Felt Way Wipers - Information about grades

Gundraw

Aluminum
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Location
Midwest
I am in the process of replacing the felt wipers on an older machine. I sifted through a number of hits on the web regarding this topic and did not find much credible technical information on the subject. Suggestions ranged from getting felt from old boots and hats, to buying the most dense felt you and find.

In looking further, I happened to stumble across this document:

https://www.professionalplastics.com/professionalplastics/TypesofFelt.pdf.

In case this link goes dead at some point, here are the points of interest for way wiper material, and more specifically, the felt grades:

SAE F-1 Pressed Felt - SAE F-1 is a hard-density white wool felt. It is suitable for oil retention where the felt is not compressed, for feeding low viscosity or light oil, and where unusual strength and hardness are required. Typical uses include washers, bushings wicks, door bumpers, polishing blocks, and parts where wear resistance to abrasion are required

SAE F-3 Pressed felt - SAE F-3 is a grey high-grade felt of slightly less density and durability than SAE F-1, but still recommended for precision uses such as: vibration mounts; precision lubrication wicking; oil seals; bumpers; gaskets; automobile, aircraft, and machinery components.

SAE F-5 Pressed Felt - SAE F-5 is a white high-grade felt of medium density recommended for precision uses where resiliency and durability are important factors. Typical uses include: lubrication wicks, grease seals, wipers, shock dampers, and dust seals

The other place wipers are mentioned is when they write about synthetic blend varieties:

Plushes - Pile fabrics are a combination of natural & synthetic fibers. A wide variety of pile types, height, and configurations is available. Typical Applications: Gaskets, wipers, light seals, roll covers, lint brushes, directional belts, litho plate cleaners, etc.

The document goes on about some of the other interesting characteristics of felt. Hope this helps someone else.

GunDraw
 
This is interesting information. I replaced the felt in the oiling system of my Giddings and Lewis hbm but think the felt I put in was to dense and I'm not getting enough oil flow. I plan to install a softer grade soon. I wonder where you could find what grade of felt was used in a machine originally?

My name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic.
 
I would recommend white wool felt. The grey felt we could get was made from rags, not good. We were replacing the oil application wipers on a Gallmeyer & Livingston surface grinder. White felt wipers is what we also took out, the originals.

JH
 
Just want to get some folks thoughts on this...my own lathe has rubber/plastic wipers that are pretty ineffective and I want to replace some time. I know felt has been used traditionally but I'd always wondered about their effectiveness as well, and recently saw some info that confirmed. A felt wiper will wipe large chips and hold oil effectively, but will collect dust/grit/small chips and need to be replaced. Watching a video about an K&T mill wiper replacement, the factory wipers were brass and spring loaded. The idea being that the brass could more effectively scrape debris off the ways without collecting it, but would retain oil and would be softer than the ways, thus wear to them being spring loaded. Seemed like a decent idea.
 
I'm a fan of some kind of scraping element either plastic, hard rubber or brass with felt behind it to retain oil and keep the ways lubricated. My older machines have the brass and felt and the newer stuff has a hard rubber scraper that I have put felt behind. I never really liked just the rubber, it seemed to squeegee the oil off the ways. I always wonder about the rubber getting stuff embedded in it too. I suppose that is why all the modern cnc stuff just has full way covers.

My name is Brian and I'm a toolaholic.
 
It has always seemed to me, that felt embeds with swarf and becomes a "lap". I wondered why brass or plastic scrapers weren't used more often.
 
The document I linked does mention some of the synthetic felts and their uses. I can only assume, felt wipers from antique machinery was overwhelmingly wool. Cannot comment on if a synthetic would be better, but I stuck with the wool.

As for felt vs rigid wiper. I was told that felts do collect chips, but have a tendency to take them under the surface of the felt and harbor them away from the way surface.

I've never been cavalier enough to "re-engineer" any of my machine wipers. I do, however, try to be diligent about keeping whatever wiper system the machine has, in good working order. I believe periodic replacement of felt wipers is part of that.
 
Way wipers on my late Model C Pratt&Whitney lathe are very good in design. The housing is 2 piece. The front housing contains a Brass Shim Stock type wiper bent at a slight angle on the very end about 3/16 to 1/4". when assembled the bend is less than required so the shim is forced onto the ways. It actually scrapes off the oil on the ways then it it's backed with white felt in the second section that is held by the two screws that attach the wiper to the carriage or tail stock that are a shoulder screw type so that the OD of the unthreaded section aligns the two pieces. The felt now reoils the ways that were cleaned by the brass.
 








 
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