DISCLAIMER: This worked for me, YMMV!!
My Rock BR was clunky, jerky and anything but smooth in operation as I got it.
As I could not afford a higher quality rest, at this time anyway, I thought I'd see what could be done with the rest I have.
On my first attempt I tore the rest completely apart and did some polishing on a couple moving parts, the bearing face of the height adjustment wheel and the gib surfaces of the cross slide. I also tried to find a way to polish the screw threads on the height adjustment screw and the leg leveler screws. With no machines available there wasn't much I could do. I reassembled the rest and found nothing much improved. Maybe the cross slide moved a bit easier and had less backlash, I'm not sure.
For those folks interested in performing these upgrades, here is a link to the McMaster-Carr site where you can find the correct delrin parts and bearings.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#6655k74/=od24lk
http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-washers/=qaxmdi
Later on I was emailing with Leo Bourne, the guy I bought my CVBR stock from, and mentioned the Rock BR project. After some discussion we started collaborating on what to do to improve the rest.
Here is what we came up with.
1. Disassemble your rest. Remember how it comes apart or take photos!
2. Using 400 and up wet/dry paper on a flat surface, polish parts 1, 2, 3, and gently polish the angled gib surfaces on part 1. Maintain the original the angle on these gib parts. Polish to whatever luster you feel like working to.
3. If you are up for additional work, sand and polish parts 4 and 5 in above photo. Leo did, I didn't.
Modify the tip of the mariners wheel lock screw, photo below, to look like the lower lock screw. Basically remove the threads for ¼" or so so the tip will fit into the way in the main height adjustment screw. This will allow us to throw away that black part in the photo below and lets the rest lower much more smoothly.
I switched the 2 lock screws. As the gross adjustment is used much less often, I put the modified lock screw there. And used the factory screw to lock the mariners wheel.
I also noticed that the way, look at the photo in the next post, looked as if it were machined with a hammer drill. A bit of filing and sanding smoothed it out considerably. Works smooth now.
4. We will discard the parts in the photo below.
My Rock BR was clunky, jerky and anything but smooth in operation as I got it.
As I could not afford a higher quality rest, at this time anyway, I thought I'd see what could be done with the rest I have.
On my first attempt I tore the rest completely apart and did some polishing on a couple moving parts, the bearing face of the height adjustment wheel and the gib surfaces of the cross slide. I also tried to find a way to polish the screw threads on the height adjustment screw and the leg leveler screws. With no machines available there wasn't much I could do. I reassembled the rest and found nothing much improved. Maybe the cross slide moved a bit easier and had less backlash, I'm not sure.
For those folks interested in performing these upgrades, here is a link to the McMaster-Carr site where you can find the correct delrin parts and bearings.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#6655k74/=od24lk
http://www.mcmaster.com/#standard-washers/=qaxmdi
Later on I was emailing with Leo Bourne, the guy I bought my CVBR stock from, and mentioned the Rock BR project. After some discussion we started collaborating on what to do to improve the rest.
Here is what we came up with.
1. Disassemble your rest. Remember how it comes apart or take photos!
2. Using 400 and up wet/dry paper on a flat surface, polish parts 1, 2, 3, and gently polish the angled gib surfaces on part 1. Maintain the original the angle on these gib parts. Polish to whatever luster you feel like working to.
3. If you are up for additional work, sand and polish parts 4 and 5 in above photo. Leo did, I didn't.
Modify the tip of the mariners wheel lock screw, photo below, to look like the lower lock screw. Basically remove the threads for ¼" or so so the tip will fit into the way in the main height adjustment screw. This will allow us to throw away that black part in the photo below and lets the rest lower much more smoothly.
I switched the 2 lock screws. As the gross adjustment is used much less often, I put the modified lock screw there. And used the factory screw to lock the mariners wheel.
I also noticed that the way, look at the photo in the next post, looked as if it were machined with a hammer drill. A bit of filing and sanding smoothed it out considerably. Works smooth now.
4. We will discard the parts in the photo below.