Make your own frame sliders
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Make your own frame sliders - 8/2/2005 12:58:25 AM
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Tong3
Posts: 107
Joined: 6/27/2005
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Tips & Tricks / How to's
How to make your own frame sliders
Date: Tuesday, November 7, 2000
From: By Jason Herre
You can make your own frame sliders with a little time and just a little effort. Before you even start you must make sure that you have a few basic wood working tools. Foremost, you must have a lathe. I used a 25 year old Craftsman. Second, you need to have a drill press. You can use a hand held drill, but a press is a lot more efficient. Other tools that you will need are: a combination square, back saw, hack saw, chop saw, electric drill w/ screw driver bits, a short bar clamp, 15/32" drill bit, a 1 1/8" Forstner bit and a little piece of wood. 2" Nylon round stock was sourced from a local plastic supply company. There is bound to be a place around where you can find this.
For a non-s model, measure a piece of round stock that is 3 3/4" and cut it with the chop saw. Measure to find the exact center and draw an "x" on the top. For the spindle (end A) end you must cut the "x" with the back saw; the teeth on the spindle will bite into this "x". Measure down 1/2" from end A, mark with a black sharpie. Measure from the bearing end ( 1/4" and mark with the sharpie. For end B, a piece of 3/4" pine board must be affixed with some small drywall screws. Find the middle of end B.
Place the unit onto the lathe making sure that the stock is 100% centered. Use the sharpie to mark the rest of your lines while the unit is turning. Using a Parting Tool (if you have a lathe, you know what they are) start to work the material off of end A from the line at 1/2". Continue to work this end until this end fits into the hole where the long bolt used to reside. As you do this you will have to occasionally clear the shavings from the spindle because this material does not chip, it spits out strings, and they get wound up in the spindle. Once end A is the correct size, all that is needed to put a small bevel into end B at the line. Complete the above steps for the other side. Please realize that the two sides are different sizes.
On end B start a hole in the center w/ the forstner. Just start the hole because it is quite hard to drill out all of that material. Drill just far enough that you start the 1 1/8" hole and can get back into it. Flip the slider over and drill the mounting hole w/ the 15/32" drill bit. If you have a good drill index the bit will go right through. You do need to get a bit that is long enough to reach all of the way thought the slider. After this is drilled out, you will find that end B drills a lot easier now that the pilot is drilled. This hole should be about 2" deep.
With all of the drilling done you can cut the excess off of end B so that the bevel looks nice. And presto, you have a frame slider. The next thing to do is to find suitable means of mounting the sliders. At the local hardware store one should be able to find the 12mm threaded rod to mount the sliders. I chose to use the fine threaded rod for the extra strength that it provided. The way that I did the bolt is to place the nut and washer on one end and put it all together. Mark the end without the nut and washer at the edge of the slider. Then take it all back apart and run the nut all of the way down the rod till it is 2" past the mark. Using the hack saw cut the rod just on the far side of the nut. Then take the newly cut end, and buff it on a belt sander or something like that. I put locktite on this nut so that I never took it off again. It is really hard to put a nut onto a cut end of threaded rod, so locktite it on there. Put all of the pieces back together, and wowwee look at them sparkle.
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