Original Series Drag Chain

I received the new drag chains for my X-50 Journeyman. Everything worked as it should except for the X-rail ball screw oil port screw was conflicting with the drag chain rail. I couldn’t tighten the drag chain rail screws without bending the rail. Is there a solution to this? I thought about trying to find a button head screw to replace it with. Wanted to see what others had done and/or what @OnefinityCNC recommends for this issue. I included a few pictures. I’m very excited to get these up and running!



@fulton
Hey Fulton,

Apparently, they shipped out a lot of the Z-Gantry’s with the oil screw in the wrong place. @OnefinityCNC sent me a video on how to switch it around to the front and rotate the ball screw accordingly. I would send you the link; but, it no longer works for me. Maybe they can send to you.

Jay

Another option would be to replace it with a grub screw. That way you don’t have to disassemble the z-slider. If I remember right it’s a M4.

The drag chain will also hit a tramming screw at the back of the x rail when moving to the far right. That screw has to be replaced with a grub screw anyway.

Thank you for the responses. Currently the oil port screw is very easy to access and doesn’t require disassembling the z-slider. The oil port screw has not been a problem until now trying to mount the drag chain rail. I would love to know if anyone did or did not have this issue mounting the drag chain rail.

Hey Fulton, I just ran into this issue myself. What have you done to resolve the issue?

Hey Stephen, I am still curious if there are better solutions, but I just ordered these flat socket cap screws to replace the oil port screw.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0BWY378KP?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

It was the quick fix but still requires the drag chain to be disassembled when oiling the ball screw.

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Cool! Thanks for the link. I just stuck a piece of black duct tape over the oil port to keep dust from getting in there :sweat_smile:. Yeah, I cant think of any better solutions to the one you have. I was going to flip the ball screw nut around to face the front, but I’m sure its much easier to remove the drag chain every now and again than to remove the Z-slider and have to tram all over again. If you did flip the ball screw around it looks like you’d only have about 5/8" of clearance to get that M6 screw in and out. Maybe a modified allen wrench could give you just enough room to back that screw in and out from the front? Who knows? I think for now I’ll just stick with your solution. Thanks again!

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I have used a modified allen key to get in there between the z-slider and the oil port. It’s still very tough to get in there. The right solution is probably a 45 degree zerk.

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I found a supplier of an M6 push connect elbows. I used these with my manual one shot oiler and 4 mm OD plastic tubing to push oil to the ball nuts. It works well.

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Would you have a link for those?

If you are referring to the M6 elbows, here is a response I copied from an earlier forum update where I shared this and other work:

I didn’t use any special hose for a main line, just 4 mm OD tube and a manual pump oiler. Both from Amazon I believe. The oiler has two output ports, so I just made the lengths equal to try and keep the oiling consistent. I believe at the time the wait for M6 x 4 mm OD elbow fittings was too long, so I sourced them from Mettle Air, but I think they are on Amazon now and readily available.

Here is the forum update link - there is a lot there, but it has a few photos of the oiler, lines, and fittings:

https://forum.onefinitycnc.com/t/masso-g3-atc-build-update-tool-rack-cover-manual-oiler-and-warm-up-program/14720

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