Hi TTN,
I can't provide you with pictures but I am drawing on personal experience. The crossed roller design came from a friend's machine and he had used Aluminium with steel bearings. The machine was relatively new but already some of the bearing surfaces were becoming rough. My experience with using Aluminium as a bearing surface is that it has a very short lifespan in just about any application.
That's certainly true of any of the grades like 6060 or 6063 that you get in common extrusions. They are soft. Any dust, dirt and oils that gets on the hard surface of your roller will become embedded in the surface of the aluminium. The only way I am aware of that avoids this problem is to use a softer material for the roller. And that is why Makerslide works.
Feel free to test this for yourself and report back.
I can't provide you with pictures but I am drawing on personal experience. The crossed roller design came from a friend's machine and he had used Aluminium with steel bearings. The machine was relatively new but already some of the bearing surfaces were becoming rough. My experience with using Aluminium as a bearing surface is that it has a very short lifespan in just about any application.
That's certainly true of any of the grades like 6060 or 6063 that you get in common extrusions. They are soft. Any dust, dirt and oils that gets on the hard surface of your roller will become embedded in the surface of the aluminium. The only way I am aware of that avoids this problem is to use a softer material for the roller. And that is why Makerslide works.
Feel free to test this for yourself and report back.