Hi all I am trying to find the best way to support the fixed end of a small (8mm) ball screw used in the cross direction of a CNC lathe I am building. Because of where I am (Norway which makes importing both slower and far more expensive than the States etc) and because I apparently like doing things the hard way I would rather produce my own bearing housing etc than buy one. These are not cheap screws (Eichenberger Gewinde) so it doesn't make sense to put cheap bearings on them. The ID diameter of the machine end is going to be 6mm (maybe 1/4 inch would get me a bit more diameter but I prefer metric)

It seems the standard approach would be to use a pair of preloaded angular contact bearings or perhaps a double row AC bearing. Below 10mm the options get a bit thin when it comes to AC bearings. I was also considering using a standard ball bearing for radial support and a pair of axial bearings for axial, all pre-loaded with some conical washers I have on hand.

some of the ways to skin this cat:
option 1, a 7301 (double AC) which is 12ID using a heat shrunk and machined in place sleeve.
option 2, pair of 7200 with 10mm ID using a heat shrunk and machined in place sleeve.
option 3, pair of 6mm ID magneto bearings (Angular contact but I am not sure what number they are as I can't find them in the bearing catalogs but they might be called E6 or 706A/706C)
option 4, pair of high quality 626 with a small amount of preload (6mm ID so no sleeve)
option 5, single 626 with pair of 51100 axial bearings with spacers as the axial bearings are 10mm ID
option 6, just buy a high quality FKA06 support and be done with it.

Any suggestions?

thanks

Luke