I’m looking forward to building a primo mpcnc and was wondering about ways to give the rails some color. Has anyone done this? How durable was it?
Jon
Hello there! Welcome!
I don’t know how many people have tried to color their rails, but I’m sure they all fell victim to the fact that the bearings will wear through any coating you put on them, and if they don’t/can’t, it’ll throw off your accuracy. That being said, you could always get creative in the areas of the rails that the bearings don’t roll on, and use paint, stickers, nail polish, glitter, whatever. Just be careful that whatever you do put on doesn’t interfere with the bearings, the movement, or the electronics. (I’ve seen people mount LED strips on the bottom of their rails in the “dead space” to light their work area.)
What about tempering colors… would those wear through as well? Then again, would tempering soften the steel too much and lose rigidity?
One of the things I was considering is Cerakote. Its supposedly self lubricating, only about .001 thick, and, at least on firearms, pretty durable.
It will wear a groove where the bearings run.
Ryan blued his stainless tubes, they have a silver line where the bearings run.