Sidney - Neoprene Way Wiper Replacement Material

Good afternoon everyone,
I am working on repairing a broken way wiper cover on my Sidney Model 32 16" lathe. I am just waiting on a corner rounding cutter to finish milling the new cover and now need to figure out a good replacement neoprene for the wiper itself. The neoprene wiper itself is 1/4" x 3/8" x 1 3/4". On McMaster-Carr I found the following options:

High-Strength Neoprene in a Durometer of - 30A, 40A, 50A, 60A, or 70A -
McMaster-Carr

Ultra-Strength Neoprene in a Durometer of 50A, 60A, or 70A -
McMaster-Carr

My plan for either one would be to buy a 1/4" strip and cut it to size. I am wondering which version everyone would recommend and at what Durometer.

For reference here is an image of the unbroken side:



Here is the broken side:



And here is the broken wiper cover itself after removal and some cleaning. As I mentioned, I am making a new replacement for this.

And a few more:

One other question, as I have searched the forum I have seen several people mentioned adding a brass spring scraper in front of their covers which would ride directly on the way. Seems like a good idea. Do you think this design would benefit from adding a brass scraper in front of the aluminum cover or is the aluminum cover doing this job well enough?

I'd probably use F1 felt as the wiper material. Better oil retention. Some felts also used a hard plastic in front of it. But I think plastic or neoprene alone may alone may allow some fine particles past it. Felt wipers you'd cut a little bit long so when wiper cover is screwed on the felt will have a little tension on the ways.

From mcmaster carr:
McMaster-Carr

Was researching felts for making my own a bit ago. The link is here:
Another Felt Discussion

Grainger is cheaper, but you need to look at the specs. Some of the felts have adhesive on one side, prefer non-adhesive.

My 1918 L&S uses a version of all 3! It has brass scrapers on the V ways backed by leather wipers (noeprene would come out later). The wipers on the flat tailstock ways like these are cast bronze bottles with no bottom. Inside is split into two sections, one for a spring loaded leather wiper on the outside and for a felt on the inside. The top of the bottle is an oiling port. The 1946 Sidney 16" toolroom lathe I run at work has the same wipers as yours.

Parts if you have not seen this:
Sidney lathe parts

jhruska, thank you for pointing that thread out, I hadn't seen it! I think that may be an older model. That being said, I have the new wiper cover just about done, just need to figure out the neoprene.

texasgunsmith, thanks for the reply! I have read threads arguing both ways now. Some people prefer neoprene, some felt. I am leaning towards keeping the neoprene, but could absolutely but a felt backer between the normal neoprene holder and the carriage, or would that just catch more debris between the two. Thoughts?

At one point Monarch was using wipers that were thin pieces of rubber laminated to either felt or foam (I don't recall which). You could make your own laminated wipers using contact cement.

Cal