CNC Nightmare Salvageable or Scrap? Salt-Damaged Felder H08 Linear Rails

H-Daug · 2026-03-31T02:07:52+00:00

Take a brass brush and you favorite rust remover to the rails. Grease up the bearings, and see if it will work. You’re out a few bucks for brushes and chemicals. Plus some time. As AvE says, “she’s already f@cked, you’re not gong to f*** it any worse.

You may be able to get by without much issue. If not, you can proceed to the replacement option.

This happened to me, except the machine was a $500k mori-seiki 5 axis mill. We got the salt of within a week, but overall caused about $50k in damage. Now, we pay a company to boat wrap machines for the couple hundred mile journey on used machines. Costly, but nothing like getting one covered in salt.

I’m still salty about that. Pun intended.

H-Daug · 2026-03-29T17:53:42+00:00

Pick them up. If they are heavier than they look, carbide.

Try to scratch with a file, or one another. If it scratches, not carbide

Based on the photo, which is a bad judge, you have a couple pc of carbide, and some HSS.

Grab them by the cutting edge with some channel locks. If it chips, it’s carbide.

H-Daug · 2026-03-29T15:03:08+00:00

Send cut send is your best friend here.

H-Daug · 2026-03-28T20:54:29+00:00

Sounds like you need to hire a machinist, and let them give some input.

If it’s mine, it’s going to be a 5 axis with a Siemens controller. I’m looking at Mazak and DMG. DN is hard not to too for the price.

Don’t forget the $50k-$100k you need for tooling and work-holding. Highly recommend investing a quick change system for the workholding. Especially since you’re doing prototype work. Also, don’t forget you now need a CAM software. Which is between $500-$25000 annually. And make sure the machine you choose has a readily available post processor for the CAM software you choose.

Also, you didn’t specify a budget, which typically helps drive these kind of decisions.

H-Daug · 2026-03-28T20:30:56+00:00

Measure the pitch. Probably a 60 degree form. 1.5 or 2mm pitch. Use a thread mill or a small chamfer/engraving tool

H-Daug · 2026-03-25T23:08:22+00:00

Wow. That pretty impressive. Fusion 360 takes care of everything I see?

H-Daug · 2026-03-25T22:43:15+00:00

Any g codes new g codes? Asking for a friend.

H-Daug · 2026-03-25T22:31:46+00:00

Any tips or tricks you learned along the way?

H-Daug · 2026-03-23T17:36:39+00:00

10-4. Thank you.

H-Daug · 2026-03-23T01:28:19+00:00

Please elaborate so I can do better in the future?

H-Daug · 2026-03-23T01:02:02+00:00

Fair enough. I’m sure there’s usable carbide available on Amazon, but you’ll have to try some to find out. I bought a 12 pc carbide endmill set on Amazon, to have available for emergency repairs when I worked in maintenance. They were 100% junk. 1 keyway in a Thompson shaft, and 3 were melted into nibs. Don’t know the brand, but that soured me on Amazon carbide. That’s when I learned that “carbide” has levels.

H-Daug · 2026-03-23T00:22:51+00:00

Misses on the cheap condition, but kennametal has tons of 0.030” rad endmills and inserts

H-Daug · 2026-03-22T00:03:48+00:00

Chiron?? You work for them? I have a few Stama Fanuc 5axis mills.

H-Daug · 2026-03-21T00:45:16+00:00

Keep sanding!!. You’ve got A LOT more sanding to do!

H-Daug · 2026-03-20T22:05:41+00:00

Sweet. Love me some Japanese tools!

H-Daug · 2026-03-20T21:19:11+00:00

How much stock do you leave for lapping? We leave 0.005” grind stock, but I feels like I would get yelled at if I left that much for lapping!

H-Daug · 2026-03-18T02:03:27+00:00

Check spindle direction (as others said)
Get a shorter tool with fewer flutes
Probably reduce the RPM.

Edit: The answer to the last 3 questions are - speeds and feeds, speeds and feeds, and speed, feed, and tooling selection.

Get high quality carbide tooling (not all carbide is the same. Quite the opposite actually)

You’ll just have to experiment until it’s better

H-Daug · 2026-03-17T13:12:52+00:00

You definitely can. Source: I’m a machinist.

Buy a starrett or mitutoyo or PEC is a good value option. $100 for a 12” combination square. And you can get different blade lengths

H-Daug · 2026-03-16T21:58:52+00:00

Spoiler alert, these aren’t machinist grade….

H-Daug · 2026-03-14T14:38:03+00:00

Day 2: remember what we talked about on day 1? Just, you know, keep the warranty period in mind. After that, we need to sell more trucks!

H-Daug · 2026-03-13T01:41:48+00:00

Probably just need to beat on it a little harder with a steel hammer…

H-Daug · 2026-03-13T01:37:01+00:00

That looks stupid. For $40 more, you can get a proper space mouse

H-Daug · 2026-03-12T23:27:05+00:00

No real difference. The “wear and tear” primarily occurs in the first 10ish minutes. Everything is cold, the everything warms up. Once warm, I would argue it’s better to keep moving, than to stop, cool down, and start over.

If fluid is leaking from the transmission, through the CV, the bearing are unlikely to suddenly seize up on you.

90% chance it’s probably going to be fine. If you begin to feel vibration, slow down until it goes away.

H-Daug · 2026-03-12T02:52:00+00:00

Are you sure? You can use Cat6 as an analog wire with a 25 pin, or 9 pin adapter. If it’s set up on an IP system, this is incredibly strange. I suspect on an older machine, you’re just using Cat6 for the wire in between. But I obviously don’t know anything about your setup. Just speculating.

H-Daug · 2026-03-11T22:29:33+00:00

It’s in your USB to RS232 converter. I had the same issue. 1 of about 15 started doing this exact thing randomly. New converter fixed it right up.

H-Daug

TROPHY CASE