[Memran]

Can someone please guide me to a good source for small ballscrews?
I can find plenty of them which are too big, and plenty which cost more than my little mill itself!

Thanks in advance!

[Memran]

Hmm just trawled fleabay, and came accross this:
3 Anti Backlash Ballscrew RM 1204-300/650/650mm-C7 CNC | eBay
The 1204 is not listed in his size chart. Would this fit my X1? (after cutting the screws to size, obviously )

[fragger6662000]

zapp automation is the only one i can think of but they are expensive.

I would not both going ball screws on that machine i ran mine for 3-4 years on the standard leadscrews. the amount of flex in the machine would probable out weigh any gain.

[Tex-VA]

Can someone please guide me to a good source for small ballscrews?
I can find plenty of them which are too big, and plenty which cost more than my little mill itself!

Thanks in advance!

Hey Memran, I just put ball screws in an X-1 mill with long X and Y and am installing them in a second one right now. I plan to start a thread to show how I did it later if it work well. I'll let you know.
They were the same size as these from ROTON 3/8 X .125 Right Hand Recirculating Lead Screws & Nuts for Power Transmission - Roton Products, Inc.. Tex in Virginia

[Memran]

Thanks for that at least I know it can be done!

I want metric size, and I think the 1204 (12mm diameter screw, 4mm lead) will possibly fit, if I do not use the supplied flange, and if I mill my Y axis a bit.

Here's the datasheet for the ball nut:
http://www.zappautomation.co.uk/pdf/...datasheets.pdf

Attached is a (rough) drawing of the side view of X and Y axis of my mill.


So you can see, the X axis has 19.5mm of space, and the diameter of the ball nut without flange is 21.5. This is the smallest metric ball nut I've found.

Milling my machine is not something I really want to do!

[LUCKY13]

I am putting 1204's in my son's X1. But its also getting other mods and I dont really see any way to do it without cutting the mill some. We are also adding leanier rails and its still a tight fit, althought I did not have to cut the base of the mill with the rails & blocks added.



The base is pretty sturdy really and it would not bother me to cut the Y axis boss for the nut out, plus a little more. The most part of the flex is the column and I took a 3/4x4x15 piece of 6061 and run it down the back of the colum, plus tied it to the base. This made a major improvement to the mills ridgidity and flex. Between that and filling the base with lead its made a totally different machine out of it. I also extended the Y axis, but I would not do it again. It would be easier and best to just buy the extended base. We have 5" x 12" travel now with leanier rails on all axis but we havnt got to run it yet. With the servo's we have I expect it to run pretty good, but we want know for sure until its done.


There is no room on the 1204 nuts to cut the nuts them self down. You could go with some good acme screws and derrin anty backlash nuts. It would be pretty easy to make a set of nuts like this even and they would fit right in same location with same bolts. The Y saddle is so thin it really would not be good to cut on it any. We made a new one and this gave us the room we needed. WIth this mill being so small we just made it out of the 6061 aluminum because we where using the rails instead of the factory ways. It seems stronger than it was with the cast iron saddle but we havnt got to do any cutting yet. But overall you can tell the whole machine is much stiffer than it use to be.



Jess

[Memran]

I've heard people use delrin nuts, but I don't understand why this would be any better than the standard block it has got now. Am I missing something?

[fragger6662000]

friction, and compliance when you pre-load them and wear

[Tex-VA]

Today I ordered a ball screw and nut from Roton to see what they look like. 3/8 X .125 Right Hand Recirculating Lead Screws & Nuts for Power Transmission - Roton Products, Inc. - I post something when they arrive. Tex

[LUCKY13]

Hope your ballscrew works out. If it doesnt someone will be able to use it. I have them for mine, although I wouldnt mind having one that was longer. The hard part is buying it.


The Derin is cheap, less friction, and it can be made to be anty backlash. Plus if you do have to use acme screws you can get a multi start screw which is much better and then make the Derin nut to much.


ANyone that has ever tried to use one of these X1's with the factoy screws knows just how usless they are to try and crank manually. They need something real bad. With CNC its a waste of motor power to try and run them.


Let us know how it goes.

Jess