In fact, you can use use cheap double-sided tape, but if I advised that then everyone will laugh at me ;). (Seriously, even a cheap tape will do the job - if the surfaces are good)

Sean,

Yep, I had numerous clamps. Gorilla glue expands like nothing else. I actually used too much and spent allot of time scraping the excess from expansion. Came off the metal racks easy, but 16 feet of rack took some time. :o

It's interesting what you will come up with when you get close to full operation of the MM. :)

Greg J,

What a fantastic solution. I still have almost a full roll of that expensive 4955 tape. Your solution is much cheaper even with the additional work required. You have made it hard for me to sell off my tape.

Here's a great price on the 3M 4611 VHB double sided tape. $33.45 for 36 yards.

http://www.tapecase.com/p.275.79/3m-...-mil-gray.aspx

I ordered mine from here and it arrived very quickly.

Which is better, 4955 or 4611. They do seem similar, but the prices are vastly different.

Heath,

I used the expensive stuff but if you look Gerald talks about using cheap double sided tape. Mine was the 4955.

Heath, as you can read in lower post #28 from my questioning on where to get this darn 4955, I’ve voted too to go with polyurethane glue. I have not done it yet, not at this stage, but surly going with this. Cheaper, as good if not better bound, and heck, I’m a woodworker by trade, I can use this stuff after...Double duty & economics!! :rolleyes:
My 2 cts... ;)

Maybe this is a good point to explain why the drawings show screws at the end of the taped x & y racks . . . .

The screws have no purpose for holding the rack during the normal operation of the machine. Their only purpose is as a "safety net" in case the racks fall off.

So, when selecting a tape/glue, realise that there is a safety net. It will not be the end of the world if you have a simple/cheap glue or tape system. You will end up with a very similar effect to a loose grub/set screw on a pinion, but nothing will be permanently destroyed (except maybe your workpiece).

I guess this would be a good time to tell everyone that I tack welded my racks in place after I stripped out the screw head on one end of the machine!

Ordered from ULINE - remainder available
 

I just ordered a 36 Yd roll of 3M 4955 from ULINE (the smallest roll available) and would be happy to sell the left-over to anyone interested. I am estimating I will use only about 7 yds max. Thanks Joe

anyone know a european supplier for 3M 4955 VHB because 3m hellas does not supply in greek market this product and minimum order is 1 case.

Hey Sakis,

I also was not able to get the original 3M Tape but I found something similar from Tesa which I guess can be found in your country.
I will post tomorrow exact type of tape. It`s a lot cheaper and does the same!
Here, second pic you can see the tape being used on the Z.
Greetings
Claus

I found some double sided tape that can hold 2.8kg per cm2 in my local stationary shop and later in local car accessories shop. They are a fraction of the VHB, about US$2~3 per 2 meter roll. It looks exactly like what Claus used.
You may get lucky looking around your area.
Seek & you shall find.

Hope this helps

The Tesa Product Code is 55751. I have to ad that I also have mounting holes drilled at 100 mm in all racks, so the glue strengh is not so important in my case. It is transparent rubberlike and more a damper having a thickness of 1 mm.

Greetings
Claus

I have tried a transparent rubber (chewing gum?) type tape I spotted in our hardware shop the other day and I was not impressed with this particular brand. I would use any 3M tape (even not VHB) before using some other unknown brand.

Gerald,

Tesa Tapes is very well known Manufacturer in Europe. If you watch their Site you will find a lot of specialized Tapes for different industrial applications with modified acrylate glue which I guess it´s the same 3M uses.

Thanks i am going to check around for other brands i wall call 3m hellas again since Gerald suggest and others tapes outside this specific code they told me that have some others tapes that maybe will do the job.
Gerald can you give as some codes of the tapes outside VHB or general spec so i will be able to ask them and let them have a better view of what the needs are.

In 3M's range, I think you can use 4955, 4991, 4655, 4957, 5962, 4979, 4956, 4956F, 4016, 4026 or 4056.

In tesa's range, I see 4978 & 62936 (Greece office)

Thanks Gerald .

I dont know if this has been posted yet but a trick to getting the tape to stick really good is to use a heat gun. Stick the tape to the backside of the rack and then run a heat gun over it for a few minutes and then mount it in place on the rail. The only way I could get it to come off after it cooled down was to apply more heat to it again.(I had to replace to rack for the z axis)

Thanks woody for the tip.
Need a little elaboration, when you mentioned heat, what type of temperature do you mean, From where I'm from, our indoor ambient temp w/o air-conditioning don't go below 30 degree C. Metel under sun (not even hot sun) can reach 65~80 degree C. Do I still need to apply heat?

Ken, We just got out from over 20cm of snow. You are making me jealous. :)

I just run a heatgun over it till its soft and gummy so it sticks really good. I maybe heat it for 2 to 3 minutes(with the heatgun on high setting) and its good. Just as long as its soft and warm it will stick good. It may be warm enough where you are Ken that you dont need to heat it up. When I put the rack on for the x axis it was drooping in the middle so I clamped it up and a few hour later when I removed the clamps it was doing it again so I clamped it again and took the heatgun and ran over the areas that I had problems with and when it cooled down it fixed the problem.

Don't be too envious, its monsoon season, we had about 1-~20cm of rain daily for nearly 2 weeks & finally see some sun yesterday. In case you ask, yes, there are light flash floods everywhere.

Rob, thanks for elaborating, I did pull out a hair dryer to experiment and my alternative tape nearly melted... I played with it for a while & the best result is to heat up the metal to about 40~50 deg. C, but like you said, I probably don't have to apply heat after all.

In my case, surface rust, scale, dirt & oil on the surface are the worst enemy just as Gerald said.

FWIW, I used a tube of construction adhesive. I know that the stuff works better with porous materials, but so far so good.

The racks are secured with screws on either end after all, so the adhesive only serves to prevent the rack from sliding under the screws and to provide some support in the middle.

Also, the pinion is held against the rack (and consequently the rack against the rail) with a spring.

If it fails, the rack will rattle against the rail - no biggie. I'll then buy some sort of double sided tape and do it the right way.

Someone has to try the stupid things. Might as well be me. The way I figure it, I'm adding to the worldwide body of knowledge in a way that doing things the right way can't. ;)

Some good inventions and inovations have come about from someones mistakes. cyanoacrylate adhesives were originally a mistake. :) INFO

Hey all,

Nice and Fun being here.. folks, Got to look at the patch to fill the need either by glue or by tape..How about getting the glue under the rack .. as Smreish.. told.. was nice.. I really appreciate the idea from Greg.. too .

Paul.

.
.
safe adhesive tape

Any volunteers to downgrade the spec on the tape? :)

Because I knew there would be scepticism about double-sided tape to hold the racks, I nominated a very high-spec tape. This is proving expensive and hard to find. I am convinced however that even the cheap, common tapes will work perfectly, provided that they are about 2mm thick, and that the mounting surfaces are good.

Give it a go . . . I am sure it will work. :)

I am already volunteering for that! We couldn't find any 3M here, so we had to go for something that's called 'fanTape' available in rolls of 3, 5 meters at 18mm for around 1USD/meter.
It's the stuff you find in any hobbyshop/hardware store.

We also found white tape and much cheaper that came from china, but that didn't stick well on my finger at all (opened the package in the shop..... :D)

So far it sticks for about 2 weeks now, and I don't think it will fall off any time soon, I like it actually because it give a bit of extra flex to the racks.
I initially tried two small strips of 5cm on each side of the rack, as a demo for my father in law and even that worked without problems.

Just don't use the plastic tape, often found red colored you must use the foamy double sided tape.

Ries

My Home Depot construction adhesive so far is working fine.

Optimum? Heck no! :D