[fragger6662000]

digits

thats not the case with ball screws in the uk. you just don't use the uk you buy in the usa and ship it here. i bought two 40" 5/8 ball screws with 4 nuts and end machining for under £150 with tax and duty paid. Then bought a speciel tape for the mounting flange for £15 shipped.

[digits]

digits

thats not the case with ball screws in the uk. you just don't use the uk you buy in the usa and ship it here. i bought two 40" 5/8 ball screws with 4 nuts and end machining for under £150 with tax and duty paid. Then bought a speciel tape for the mounting flange for £15 shipped.

Which US suppliers did you guys use then? I'd be a bit worried about screws getting damaged in 3,500 miles of transit, and all the pain and tedium involved in returning anything. But with the pound worth $2, it might be worth a punt!

[fragger6662000]

me and longrat used homeshopcnc

[digits]

me and longrat used homeshopcnc

Thanks - do you know how much the end machining costs, and what did you do for bearings?

Looking at their prices, it is about 30% cheaper than I've been quoted here, but I imagine that the shipping would errode some of those savings.

The £200/screw in the UK I stated works out roughly as:

Screw (600mm) ~£36
Screw machining ~£40
Ballnut ~£50
Ballnut holder ~£25
Bearings ~£70
------
~£220 and all of that is ex-VAT.

[fragger6662000]

well the screw would be £16.40
2 ball nuts £28.20 (zero baklash)
flange £16.66
and i think machining was it was £33
Postage might be £30

total would be £124.66

vat and duty on £94.26 would be around £24

Grand total £148

that is assuming machining is 60 dollars, longrat machined his own. I have the tap for the ballscrew nut so you could machine a flange as you could borrow the tap. matt

[digits]

well the screw would be £16.40
2 ball nuts £28.20 (zero baklash)
flange £16.66
and i think machining was it was £33
Postage might be £30

total would be £124.66

vat and duty on £94.26 would be around £24

Grand total £148

that is assuming machining is 60 dollars, longrat machined his own. I have the tap for the ballscrew nut so you could machine a flange as you could borrow the tap. matt

Thanks - that is a lot cheaper (though you pay VAT + Duty on shipping too!).

I don't know I'd be up to machining my own screws - I am seriously considering getting a lathe, but I don't think cutting hardened ball-screws should be my first project!

So are there any issues in fitting 16mm screws to an X1 then? And what did you do for bearings?

Cheers.

[fragger6662000]

no you should not as that is deemed to be a service. also i did the calculation based on a 1.8 exchange rate not the 1.98 at the moment.

from others you can put the 5/8th screws on the y and z axis but would require modifcation on the X.

[digits]

no you should not as that is deemed to be a service. also i did the calculation based on a 1.8 exchange rate not the 1.98 at the moment.

from others you can put the 5/8th screws on the y and z axis but would require modifcation on the X.

Thanks again for the info.

TBH, I think needing to modify the table for the X-axis probably rules this out for me - I'd need another mill to do it! That said, the X-2 clone from Warco really does seem to have 300mm X and Y travel and a 550W motor

[LongRat]

??
Warco's X2 clone has nothing like 300mm travel last time I looked. If it does, please enlighten me as it would require an elongated base which I would definitely be buying from them. For reference, I'm getting 89mm Y travel out of my ballscrew converted X2, which is a little bit less than the manual machine. It's the no.1 limitation on this machine. I bought mine from Chester.
I strongly recommend the homeshopcnc screws and services. Your best bet would seem to be 5/8" screws on Y and Z, and sourcing a more tricky to find 3/8" ballscrew for the X. If you do go for homeshopcnc, even if you had a lathe, seriously consider his machining service. It is very good value and I can personally confirm machining hardened screws is no fun.
For info, here's a picture of my first anti-backlash solution before I went over to ballscrews. It's a self-cut delrin nut pairing. I got the backlash in the 40-60µm region before friction got too high, but it wouldn't stay that way for long and it isn't the most rigid setup. Ballscrews are in a whole different league.

[digits]

??
Warco's X2 clone has nothing like 300mm travel last time I looked. If it does, please enlighten me as it would require an elongated base which I would definitely be buying from them. For reference, I'm getting 89mm Y travel out of my ballscrew converted X2, which is a little bit less than the manual machine. It's the no.1 limitation on this machine. I bought mine from Chester.
I strongly recommend the homeshopcnc screws and services. Your best bet would seem to be 5/8" screws on Y and Z, and sourcing a more tricky to find 3/8" ballscrew for the X. If you do go for homeshopcnc, even if you had a lathe, seriously consider his machining service. It is very good value and I can personally confirm machining hardened screws is no fun.
For info, here's a picture of my first anti-backlash solution before I went over to ballscrews. It's a self-cut delrin nut pairing. I got the backlash in the 40-60µm region before friction got too high, but it wouldn't stay that way for long and it isn't the most rigid setup. Ballscrews are in a whole different league.

I went to the London Model Engineering Exhibition on Saturday and had a very quick play with Warco's X-2 clone and the WM-14. The X-2 clone really does seem to have a sqaure base, with a lot of Y-travel. I didn't crank it all the way back and forth though and I didn't have a ruler to measure the throat - perhaps a lot of the travel isn't actually usable...

I will do some investigation of homeshop CNC's screws etc - but I still need to find some decent fixed and floating bearings at reduced prices - any ideas would be welcome!

Cheers.

[LongRat]

On the X2 I used a duplex arrangement of axial thrust bearings on the driven end of each screw - nothing on the ends of any of my 3 screws. This works very nicely, I got the thrust bearings from Arc Euro, they are not expensive.
I was also at the show on Saturday, and looked at the same machine. The X2 clone certainly doesn't have any more travel than mine, but the machine they had set up as a CNC (WM-14?) has what seems to be more all around, I would have to check the catalogue. Looks like a nice machine, but their CNC conversion at over £3k is way overpriced, esp as you don't even get ballscrews.

[digits]

On the X2 I used a duplex arrangement of axial thrust bearings on the driven end of each screw - nothing on the ends of any of my 3 screws. This works very nicely, I got the thrust bearings from Arc Euro, they are not expensive.
I was also at the show on Saturday, and looked at the same machine. The X2 clone certainly doesn't have any more travel than mine, but the machine they had set up as a CNC (WM-14?) has what seems to be more all around, I would have to check the catalogue. Looks like a nice machine, but their CNC conversion at over £3k is way overpriced, esp as you don't even get ballscrews.

Cheers - I guess 300mm of Y would really need about 500mm of base and a 300mm throat to work properly!

I had a quick look at the WM-14 - but didn't see the CNC'ed one - D'oh. It looked a lot like a little X-3 to me - but TBH I'd rather not have the quill - it's just a source of wobble IMHO - my drilling is all hands off and better for it! The travels are also less than my Super X-1L : 220 long, 160 wide, 220 vertical! It's also MT-2 which rules out all that nice Tormach tooling...

Did you see the X3-CNC on the Arc Euro stand? Very nice looking 3D-parts which convinced me ballscrews really are worth the cash! I didn't get a chance to ask them how long it had taken though - the lack of a live demo suggested it was a very long time

[LongRat]

To be honest, the demo parts on the Arc X3 did not impress me much. The finish you could get is far superior. I would not be surprised if that part was not hogged out quickly based on the way it looked. That is, if we are talking about the same demo object (plate alu filled with misc parts, con rods etc). Also, I think they were mostly 2.5D parts, if not all, so cheap CAD and CAM would sort it easily.

[digits]

To be honest, the demo parts on the Arc X3 did not impress me much. The finish you could get is far superior. I would not be surprised if that part was not hogged out quickly based on the way it looked. That is, if we are talking about the same demo object (plate alu filled with misc parts, con rods etc). Also, I think they were mostly 2.5D parts, if not all, so cheap CAD and CAM would sort it easily.

You're probably right - I only gave it a quick glance, I was too busy queueing to try and buy things they didn't have at the show