Quick tip: Turning welding electrodes into long 3mm shafts/rods.
I've been doing more and more projects where I need smooth linear motion and there are many ways to achieve it, but for small projects things like 12mm precision ground hardened steel shafts are a bit much. I have a small and light CNC project going on and I need a smooth and straight shaft for the linear motion. Something like a 3mm shaft from a CD/DVD drive would have been perfect if not for the fact that, for what i'm doing right now, they're too short. So I started thinking up ways of making the shaft out of something. It had to be readily available, preferably something I already had, something straight and relatively precise. With "3mm shaft" still in my head I quickly remembered that I have a pack of 3mm electrodes and from what I remember those are pretty straight, so I went to my garage and came back with a few 3mm electrodes along with some 2mm electrodes. Taking a closer look at them they do seem very straight, this might work out but I had to figur...