[DRock]

Needless to say this is a giant pain in my rear. It is proving near impossible for me, with my rather large hands, to pack the ball nut on my X-Axis due to the 12mm OD end machining on these linearmotionbearings2008 parts.

I just brought in some spare 6" RM1605 stock and I was planning on drilling out the center of it to a little over 12mm, packing it on the 6" piece, then sliding that over the machined portion...hopefully spinning the nut right into place after.

But...the machines here suck and they aren't up to the task so I am thinking of bringing it to a local machinist or having Chai send me a screw with that feature drilled already.

I am hoping you guys can help me come up with a solution or let me know if I am on the right track with my crazy idea.

Thanks!

[TiagoSantos]

have you seen the youtube videos on packing these guys? It seemed impossible at first but then I got the hang of it. I would just drop the balls inside and work them into place with a tiny screwdriver.

Failing that.. Try a piece of plastic with the minor diameter of the thread and the 12mm bore.. You should be able to pack the nut on the plastic piece and then slide it over until it's ready to thread on the ballscrew?

[DRock]

That's a great idea! I am going to try that tomorrow.

I have seen the video and I can pack the Y-Axis and Z-Axis with no issues but this machined end is killing me.

Thanks!

[Mad Welder]

I rolled a light piece of cardboard into a tube shape and this held the steel balls in situ and slid this tube over the ballscrew neatly...I found this ideal too for my Y axis as with the extended travel and rear motor mount if you're adding that mod to your build the nut goes on after sliding the ballscrew into the table. ..

[DRock]

Great ideas, I am confident I can get it done now.

Hopefully that is the last issue I am going to encounter before I can get everything moving...it seems like I have solved 20 issues so far but I keep finding more!

I am sure that trend will continue for some time...just hopefully at a much slower rate!

Haha thanks again.

[kensbey]

hey drock,

not sure howy your ends are machined, mine has a detailed end for holding a bearing pair and lock nut, then a really simple end that just has a floating bearing and a circlip. the simple end is much shorter, and i found it significanly easier to pack the nuts on from this end.

hope this helps

[691175002]

I originally managed to pack the balls on a 1605 screw as per the youtube video. Was slow but not bad.

On my smaller machine I got 12mm screws with long machined sections on each end and it was literally impossible to put the balls in on the screw. I read somewhere on cnczone where they suggested putting some goopy, very thick grease in the ballnut and sticking the balls into place then rolling the nut onto the screw in one go.

Honestly, it was easier and faster than the original method and I plan on doing this exclusively in the future. You need to be careful when inserting the screw at the end (or you will push the balls out of the nut) but it isn't that hard.

[lancut]

I originally managed to pack the balls on a 1605 screw as per the youtube video. Was slow but not bad.

On my smaller machine I got 12mm screws with long machined sections on each end and it was literally impossible to put the balls in on the screw. I read somewhere on cnczone where they suggested putting some goopy, very thick grease in the ballnut and sticking the balls into place then rolling the nut onto the screw in one go.

Honestly, it was easier and faster than the original method and I plan on doing this exclusively in the future. You need to be careful when inserting the screw at the end (or you will push the balls out of the nut) but it isn't that hard.

Did the same thing with my short 1605 ballscrew with machined ends. The youtube idea is fine as long as one end is straight cut. Placed the ballnut with the races packed with grease in the freezer for 15 minutes then packed the circuits with the balls 25 each circuit and carefully screwed the nut in to it. As far as I'm concerned from now on that the only way I'm going to this..


Best..

[DRock]

Thanks Ryan, I will try that next.

I tried both of the other methods today and couldn't get it to thread more than one circuit on the ball nut...maybe the balls are to big. I can pack it on a normal rod in under a minute but it is literally impossible on the double machined screw.

I am planing on using some automotive white lithium grease and giving it a try some time this week, I will update this with my results.

Thanks again.

EDIT: What does the freezer do to the grease?

[lancut]

Thanks Ryan, I will try that next.
EDIT: What does the freezer do to the grease?

It make it thicker, so when you press the balls in the circuits it "hold" them better longer..

[DRock]

I thought so, just wanted to make sure there weren't any other "magical" forces at work haha.

Seems like it would work well, thanks.

[DRock]

I gave the grease method a try today and it worked wonderfully for packing the ball nut. However, I can't for the life of me get this damn thing threaded on. It seems like it goes on for half a thread and then I feel it start to bind and then it usually pops a ball out of the track or it just won't thread on any more. The nut keeps threading on crooked and I am not sure how to make it stay straight, I have tried to thread it on at least 5 times each with .1235 balls and .1245 balls and I have noticed no difference. I make sure the balls are all in the tracks and none are stuck in that little area between the plastic circuits and even tried it with the wiper but I still can't get the damn thing on.

I can't believe this thing is giving me such a tough time, I like to think that I am mechanically inclined but damn...this is nuts! Literally! Haha.

Do you guys know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks for any help.

[lancut]

I did have the same problem as you did.. As it turn out one of the balls was in between circuits and stopped the screw from threading in correctly. After carefully correcting this all went how it supposed to. Make sure there are not burrs on the edge of screw. Find yourself small tube and insert in, it may help set the little balls in place. This suggestion may,may not work as it went fine for me the second try.. Good luck.

[DRock]

Those were my initial thoughts as well and I did find one stuck in there but the problem still persists after I corrected that issue. I am going to buy some more balls and pack the circuits full, right now I am trying to thread it on with around 14-15 balls in each circuit so that may be the problem.

Does anyone know the minor diameter of the 1605 ball screw?

[Mad Welder]

Hey there again DRock, sorry to hear you're still in trouble...curious here as I cannot recall the measurement of the stock steel balls...but have you tried to repack the ballnut with the stock steel balls as opposed to the oversize ones?..reason I'm asking is, is it possible that you may not have needed to insert oversize balls, maybe Chai has been reading posts here and has repacked them himself... I think I remember you mentioning in Hoss's thread that you had some sort of issue with your order from Chai.....and yes I can agree here with lancut's post earlier too as I had a similar problem as yourselves initially and I had a steel ball stuck in the little internal orange plastic ball return that's in the nuts and I too could have sworn that I had inspected the little plastic thingy and it nearly defeated me......

[DRock]

I tried with both .1235 and .1245 which are the only two sizes that I have. I got the original nut and screw from Chai but I had to flip my ball nut since I mounted my stepper on the left side. I decided that I couldn't use the original nut he gave me because both sides had been machined down which means I can't use bdtools ball nut mount. So I ordered another ball nut and 6" of 1605 so I could grind it down myself and install it properly and it's proving to be more work than I thought.

I just ordered some .1237 balls so that I can fully pack each circuit, right now I am short a couple balls in each, and I am hoping that fixes my problem.

[Mad Welder]

.......I decided that I couldn't use the original nut he gave me because both sides had been machined down ................. So I ordered another ball nut and 6" of 1605 so I could grind it down myself and install it properly and it's proving to be more work than I thought.....

Help me out here to understand your predicament and I'm not sure I follow you here!, is it that you machined both ends of the ballnut? or do you mean you had machined the top/upper and bottom/lower of the ballnut flange? is there any chance you could post a pic? and why would you order 6" of the 16mm ballscrew?

[lancut]

Those were my initial thoughts as well and I did find one stuck in there but the problem still persists after I corrected that issue. I am going to buy some more balls and pack the circuits full, right now I am trying to thread it on with around 14-15 balls in each circuit so that may be the problem.

Does anyone know the minor diameter of the 1605 ball screw?

I have 1605 ballnut/screw and one circuit took 25 balls and other (don't remember which) took 24 balls Hope this helps..

[DRock]

I have 1605 ballnut/screw and one circuit took 25 balls and other (don't remember which) took 24 balls Hope this helps..

Mine seem to fit around 17 per circuit and came with a total of 51 balls, weird that yours is so different.

Help me out here to understand your predicament and I'm not sure I follow you here!, is it that you machined both ends of the ballnut? or do you mean you had machined the top/upper and bottom/lower of the ballnut flange? is there any chance you could post a pic? and why would you order 6" of the 16mm ballscrew?

I ordered all my stuff through Chai and asked him to grind down the X-Axis nut for me as I wanted to test it out, that is back when he first started offering that option. It came to me with both sides of the flange ground down which makes it unusable with bdtools mount so I am saving it for when I decide to double nut. I ended up ordering a regular second ball nut on a 6" piece of 1605 so that I could have the extra piece to pack nuts on and then spin them off onto the actual screw. I took the new nut off the 6" 1605 and ground it down and I am stuck trying to get it onto the actual screw, I have tried packing it with both sets of balls and cannot get it to work with either.

[lancut]

Truthfully I'm not sure what the correct total number of balls should be. I counted 49 total, they are all the same size .1245". Is it possible that during assembly incomplete numbers were assembled?