Can you cut oil grooves in a built-up way surface?

I am working on a 59 Monarch 10EE that had been very poorly rebuilt at one point. Oil grooves (on the front saddle V-way) were machined that run straight from left to right, no zig-zags. As a result, the bed had worn a ridge along a considerable length (matching the oil groove). So the bed was replaced with a used bed that had very low wear. Now I need to decide about the replacement saddle. I have three 10EE saddles. The one with the straight oil groove. Another which is perfectly normal (including zig zag oil grooves) except it is worn convex, so it rocks quite a bit (.020"). And a third which came from Mare Island that has the ways built up with delrin and has no oil grooves. The one from Mare Island is a perfect fit to the bed; I used it as the sled for an autocollimator target when I fitted the bed to the base.

So I think I should scrape down saddle #2 and fit it to the bed. Saddle 1 is beyond help. Saddle 3 with the delrin has no oil grooves and oil grooves cannot be cut in it, if my understanding of built-up surfaces is correct. However, .020" is a lot, and it gets to my real question. Is .020" enough that I will also need to remove metal from the top of the apron (and then shave the gear on the cross slide screw)?

You can cut a wider groove and only .010" deep. I use alignment drift punch with a neg. 10 to 20 degree rake so it doesn't dig in. I have a picture I will attach. Or peel off the Delron and machine off the saddle ways to the height you need. I would put on either .062" or .047" Rulon 142 and not screw around with the gear.

Richard King said:

You can cut a wider groove and only .010" deep. I use alignment drift punch with a neg. 10 to 20 degree rake so it doesn't dig in. I have a picture I will attach. Or peel off the Delron and machine off the saddle ways to the height you need. I would put on either .062" or .047" Rulon 142 and not screw around with the gear.

Click to expand...

Richard, thanks for posting the pictures. I would like to have watched that job, and there are some interesting tools on your bench that I don't understand and would like to see in use (i.e. the hook end on the long scraper). However, I understood your point. I will also have to locate the oil passage; the delrin covers it up. I hope once this covid mess clears up you offer your scraping seminars again.

-Dave

The Montebello group are planning on another class in the spring of 2021. How big is your shop? I see your between LA and Vacaville where we used to do them. If you have a big shop or know someone with a bigger shop you can think about hosting a class, The host gets the class for free. The February class in Tennessee we will be installing new Rulon 142 and scraping it on a Prototrak CNC VMC. The host may have me stay an extra week to finish it too.