What is the dovetail surface and will it wear out?
• The plastic surface is PTFE filled acetyl. Common trade names for this type of material are Turcite or Delron AF. The plastic slide surface is not a coating, it’s a bonded strip, about 1/32″ thick. This type of slideway was common on mills in the past but now is only seen on expensive high precision machines such as Hardinge VMCs. The ways must be hand scrapped by experienced technicians. Many machine manufacturers have switched to linear rollers due to labor costs, but manufacturing in China allows us to provide this superior design at a low cost. It’s conceivable that the slideway could get worn out, but it would take a lot of hours. Additional engineering details of the slideway design can be found on page eight of our PCNC Design Document.
