Way liners, Turcite, Moglice and Rulon
Cavco fits and scrapes in way liners, Turcite, Moglice and Rulon, to bring worn slide and way surfaces back without regrinding the casting. Where the geometry allows it, a liner is the faster and cheaper answer, and it runs with less stick-slip than metal on metal. A liner is only as good as the surface it beds against, so it is scraped in rather than stuck down.
Three materials, and what each is actually for
Most of the argument about liner materials is really an argument about the condition of the casting underneath. Here is how we choose.
- The usual answer. The thickness is known before the job starts, which makes the geometry predictable, and it scrapes beautifully. It wants a surface that can still be prepared flat and true to bond against.
- Poured against the part it will run on, so it takes that part's exact shape. That makes it the answer when the casting is too worn or too irregular to machine straight, and on large surfaces where fitting sheet would be a fight.
- Chosen where stick-slip is the problem rather than wear. Light slides and fine feeds that have to creep without jumping. A narrower answer than the other two, used where it earns its place.
Fitting restores thickness. Scraping restores the geometry
This is the part that separates a liner job worth paying for from one that is not. Bonding or casting the material back on returns the height the wear took away. It does not make the surface flat, and it does not make the axis square to the rest of the machine. That is scraping, done after the liner is on and measured against the same references as any other way surface.
A liner stuck down and left is a repair to the wear. A liner scraped in is a repair to the accuracy, and the difference shows up in the part rather than in the quote.
When a liner is the wrong answer
A liner cannot fix a casting that has lost its straightness, and it cannot be asked to make up more thickness than it is meant to carry. Badly worn hardened ways are a grinding job, which we do in place on your floor, and some machines want both, ground true first and lined on the mating half. We measure before recommending either, because the honest version of this page is that the machine decides.
Lathe saddles and cross slides, mill knees, saddles and tables, boring mill ways and rams, grinder tables and saddles, broach slides, and the gibs and wear strips that run against all of them. Usually on the moving half, so the machine keeps its hardened ways and the wear goes somewhere replaceable.
Questions we get
- A low friction material fitted to a worn sliding surface so the slide runs on it instead of on the cast iron. It restores the lost thickness, gives back the geometry when it is scraped in, and slides more smoothly than metal on metal, which is why a lined machine often feels better than it did new.
- Turcite is a sheet, bonded on and then machined and scraped to size, so it suits a surface that can still be prepared true. Moglice is cast in place against the mating part, so it takes that part's shape, which suits a casting too far gone to machine straight. Neither is better in general. The machine decides, and we say which after measuring it.
- Rulon is the choice when friction and stick-slip matter more than anything else, on light slides and fine feeds where the machine has to creep without jumping. It is a narrower answer than the other two and we use it where it earns its place.
- For the right machine it is better, because it restores thickness and lowers friction at the same time and costs less downtime. For badly worn hardened ways it is not, because a liner cannot fix a casting that has lost its straightness. That is a grinding job, which we can do in place.
- If you want the geometry back, yes. Fitting the material restores thickness. Scraping it in is what makes the surface flat and straight and square to the rest of the machine. A liner bonded down and left is a repair to the wear, not to the accuracy, and the difference shows up in the part.
- Longer than the cast iron it replaced, in most shops, because it is more forgiving of poor lube and of grit than metal on metal. How long depends on the duty, the lube and how clean the way covers keep it, which is why we usually look at the covers and the lube system in the same visit.
Reviewed September 2026 by Cavco Machine Tool Rebuilding, LLC.
Tell us the machine and how the slide feels
Call, or send the make and model and what the ways are doing. We answer the same day.