11-14-2012, 05:57 PM
I am thinking more along the lines of a couple of hydraulic cylinders on either side of the knee to act as simple "load balancers" that would supply a constant "upward" force of say, 300 lbs so that the bearings would only be "seeing" a hundred lbs of load.
Sort of like the hydraulic cylinders on a truck bed cover to allow you to lift it by hand or the same principle that garage doors use (yes I know it's a spring and not hydraulics) to "balance" the load so that the opener doesn't deal with the full weight of the door.
With a system like that you wouldn't have to synchronize two different systems as the hydraulic "lift" would be passive.
Hopefully that made some sense.
-Ron
Sort of like the hydraulic cylinders on a truck bed cover to allow you to lift it by hand or the same principle that garage doors use (yes I know it's a spring and not hydraulics) to "balance" the load so that the opener doesn't deal with the full weight of the door.
With a system like that you wouldn't have to synchronize two different systems as the hydraulic "lift" would be passive.
Hopefully that made some sense.
-Ron
11" South Bend lathe - Wells-Index 860C mill - 16" Queen City Shaper