I have a circular saw jig which I made myself and it uses bits of aluminium which are L shaped in cross section for the saw to run in.
I'd like to make a better one with longer "rails" and rather than using the L shaped strips, which tend to sag, I'd like to use tubing and I know you can get some things that run along tubing and probably have ball bearing in, but I can't remember what they're called.
Can anyone tell me what these are called please so I can look them up online
Linear bearings.
You might find you need to use solid rather than tube - but that is way down the line!
I would call them linear bearings. They can be fully circular or part, so to fit round shafts or guide rails respectively.
so: linear bearing pillow linear guide rail
An idea:
Great, thanks very much!
Yes, linear bearings. Available with or without shafts from people like Euro Bearings.
They need to run on pretty accurate rod or tubing, which will add to the cost. I'd have thought you could get away with plain bearings, probably using one of the engineering plastics. Oilite bronze (on steel) would also work, but oiled or greased brass/bronze on steel would tend to attract sawdust.
I'm starting to think I could maybe use some drawer runners actually!
Ground steel rods are pretty common. Its then how you mount the rod, whether to support it from underneath as per the video or at each end.
Most 3D printers use ones supported at each end, allowing for a complete circular linear bearing.
I have seen the ones on guide rails used on very large machines such as CNC routers.
The bearing will have seals which should keep dust and sawdust out of them.
I guess it depends on precision. Linear bearing generally have effective dust seals.
For precision you can open ones that are adjustable:
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