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Slideway Wiper Felt Material - UK Source

CarbideTip

Aluminum
Joined
Sep 21, 2016
Location
Woking, Surrey, UK.
Greetings all,

I've been trying to find a UK supplier of felt so that I can make new way wipers for my CVA toolroom lathe.
In many respects it's a very similar machine to the 10EE but with more conventional drive.

On these forums there's quit a bit of discussion about grades of felt and many folks in the US get it from McMaster Carr.
Having not found anyone over here that was willing to supply small quantities I tried them, but they told me
'... we do not accept your orders due to the cost of complying with US export regulations.'

So does anyone in the UK know where I can get some?

Thanks,
Martin.
 
I can order some for you and then fedex it to you. I am a pilot and I get a discount on fedex. email me if interested.
 
Thanks for all the kind offers of help.

Amazon looked the easiest until I tried to checkout...Amazon.com.jpg
Anyone would think I lived on Mars.

bll230 & rblalexander.

If I don't hear from anyone in the UK by Monday I'll take one of you up on your kind offer.
What vintage is your CVA btw. Mines AH1311 from 1961.

Martin.
 
Mines a 1964 model. It's painted a horrible colour and has seen some things in its time but it's still a great machine.
 
I just cut felt wipers for my surface grinder from this:

Felt Furniture Pads FJSM 1 Roll Felt Floor Protector Pad Felt Tape Self Adhesive Furniture Pad Sticky Felt Pads Heavy Duty Thick Felt Strips Pads Roll Felt Chair Leg Pads for Furniture Feet Sofa: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

Eagle felts 1.jpg

Eagle felts 2.jpg

It's a little softer than regular way felt but it holds oil well and wipes the ways just fine. My view is that just about anything is better than old clogged up dried out felt. It has a sticky back but I found that the glue peels off perfectly leaving none behind. It's 4mm thick, I needed 1/4" so I cut two and tore one in half which also worked perfectly. Couldn't slice it in half but it just tore into two layers with my fingers.

For what little it cost you have nothing to lose for trying.
 
I’d like to add one thing to this discussion: the preferred way wipes for Monarch lathes has never been felt. Felt was always a cheaper compromise. What you really want is laminated felt/rubber wipes. They last forever, and don’t end up embedded with microscopic metallic particles, grinding away at your bed. Perhaps there is a UK source for the laminated material. The last time I checked, Thomas Register still had 3-4 US sources listed.
 
Rimcanyon: do you use a rubber/felt laminated product for way-wipers on your lathes ?

Is the function of the rubber laminate more of a wipe and push action?

If the desired action is mostly to wipe or push the chips ahead of the leading edge of the rubber wipe, what is the function then of the felt? It would be lubricated by the Vactra on the ways behind the wiper. so it's not really to wipe lube onto the way?

There are a lot of different rubber laminate materials used as moving belts for handling materials in factories or shipping or distribution centers.

Do you think a rubber/fabric/rubber product of the right thickness would be better than the current felt wipers?

DualValve
 
Rimcanyon: do you use a rubber/felt laminated product for way-wipers on your lathes ?

Is the function of the rubber laminate more of a wipe and push action?

If the desired action is mostly to wipe or push the chips ahead of the leading edge of the rubber wipe, what is the function then of the felt? It would be lubricated by the Vactra on the ways behind the wiper. so it's not really to wipe lube onto the way?

There are a lot of different rubber laminate materials used as moving belts for handling materials in factories or shipping or distribution centers.

Do you think a rubber/fabric/rubber product of the right thickness would be better than the current felt wipers?

DualValve

I use laminated rubber/felt wipers, but I am down to my last set. Monarch stopped sellng it sometime between 2000 and 2010, not sure exactly when. I still have some for larger Monarch lathes, and I use that to make wipers for the 10EE if I can. Here is a recent photo that show the laminated wipers on the saddle:

IMG_0177.jpg

I would only be speculating to answer your remaining questions. I do know that my Deckel mill uses rubber way wipes, and they do a very good job. I think if anyone is interested in getting the original material Monarch used to use, they should contact one of the mfrs. who made laminated rubber/felt material, and cut them themselves. Maybe a call to Monarch asking for the company they used to buy the material from would be productive, maybe not.
 
I use laminated rubber/felt wipers, but I am down to my last set. Monarch stopped sellng it sometime between 2000 and 2010, not sure exactly when. I still have some for larger Monarch lathes, and I use that to make wipers for the 10EE if I can. Here is a recent photo that show the laminated wipers on the saddle:

View attachment 277665

I would only be speculating to answer your remaining questions. I do know that my Deckel mill uses rubber way wipes, and they do a very good job. I think if anyone is interested in getting the original material Monarch used to use, they should contact one of the mfrs. who made laminated rubber/felt material, and cut them themselves. Maybe a call to Monarch asking for the company they used to buy the material from would be productive, maybe not.

Excellent advise. I have been looking for a source that would work. There are a great deal of custom laminaters but having a tough time finding off-the-shelf material that will work. Really not a difficult problem but the more I look at using hard felt, it seems to be marginally better than nothing at all and in some cases worse...

There are plenty of wiper suppliers, steel track with Neoprene seals... I'm considering this option since I can use in absence or broken felt wiper holders on my lathe.
 
RimCanyon: Here is a piece of the belting material I was suggesting. It has several layers of woven material for strength. But this material [I assume it's cotton] should absorb some of the way-lube and provide some lubrication.

As an experiment, I made a flat way-wiper for the wiper on the saddle over the Tailstock flat-way. It REALLY wipes the way! The rubber almost wipes the way dry. I assume that the rubber leading layer will wipe and push chips ahead and NOT become imbedded in the rubber.

DualValve


Wiper.jpgWiper.jpg
 
Looks promising. How thick is it? Do you know what widths are available? The one thing i would worry about is its flexibility. I.e. the original laminated felt wipers are stiff, but not so stiff that they wont compress. I always install them with the slideway bearings completely relaxed, then tighten the bearings, compressing the way wipes to get a good fit. I’m guessing that the belting won’t compress a lot longitudinally. Also, some belting like that has metal in it, so make sure it doesn’t.
 
I recently repurposed some high quality (When new) Hevea brand welly boots, split in the sole after 15 years.

These were oil company issue, good stuff.

I cut the uppers down into slideway wipers, brilliant, it is some sort of fabric in the core and all oil proof as well.
 
This particular conveyor belting is 8" wide and I have a ? 20 foot roll. I mostly use it for making drive discs between a generator and a water pump on antique cars from the teens through the '30's. Built in, belt driven water pumps came later and never to the brand of cars I collect,

I see lots of different conveyor belting products. Some 4 feet wide, some only a few inches wide..
This particular material is about .020" thinner that the old felt wipers were they were compressed by the retaining cap. But with the compression and being trapped by the retaining cap, the belting material is well-retained.

What I need to to is to make a good and very sharp die to cut the inside of the 'v'-way wiper. I had to cut the one 'V'-way piper I made with a knife and sharp wood chisel. and it took two tries to create a satisfactory one. Maybe if I find all the correct width wood chisels, I might be able to make the 'V'-way wiper better and easier.

DualValve.
 
There is another source for the correct material: Monarch. If you call and talk to Terrie, ask her if she has any laminated rubber saddle/cross slide way wipes for the older big machines. I did that a few years ago and got four of them for a very reasonable price. The ones I got are about 12-14" long, 1" wide, shaped to fit a very large square way. They have a part number 303198. So plenty of raw material to cut up for 10EE way wipes. They were exactly the same thickness as 10EE way wipes.
 
I need to make wipers for my shaper, but I got sidetracked after I ordered these so I don't have experience using it yet:

FOSHIO White Soft Felt Squeegee Automotive Vinyl Wrapping Tool - Wool Material Soft Window Tint Film Installing Tool,Pack of 2

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XCSWK5S/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

In the UK it is available from amazon uk:

FOSHIO White Soft Felt Squeegee Automotive Vinyl Wrapping Tool - Wool Material Soft Window Tint Film Installing Tool,Pack of 2: Amazon.co.uk: Car & Motorbike
 








 
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