[richard-at-home]

With AliExpress showing an unending list of guide/rail suppliers (nearly 8,000 listings for linear guides!), are there any tips for picking a good one? (Other than buying locally or direct from Hiwin!)

Is it worth the hassle of buying ballscrews and rails from different suppliers?

Any recommended suppliers for non-bent ballscrews and non-binding guides welcome!

This one came up on a forum, but no idea if they are any good Store:Guangzhou, HongYi Automation Co., Ltd.

Blindly looking at AliExpress is driving me slightly nuts....

[ger21]

BST Automation on AliExpress.

[richard-at-home]

Just for some comparison, some prices for 1000mm pair of rails 20mm, with 4x bearings:

Delivered to UK

$327 Noulei sold by TBImotion (score 199)
$372 HiWin (?) sold by HongYi (score 6913)
$386 HiWin sold by BSTautomation (score 4565)

Similar are about £300 - £370 in the UK, so depending on VAT and import duty, not a great deal in it!

Maybe Fred at BST would quote better directly?

[richard-at-home]

Also found on ebay uk, from a chinese seller:

2x1000mm rails 20mm, 4 bearings £155 delivered.

2x1000mm rails 20mm, 4 bearings, 2005 ballscrew with bearing and supports and coupler for £220 delivered! (probably plus vat and duty)

Not very much feedback though....

cyber-ebusiness1986

[ger21]

Fred at BST consistently gets excellent reviews from everyone. Nobody else does that I'm aware of.

[richard-at-home]

Fred at BST consistently gets excellent reviews from everyone. Nobody else does that I'm aware of.

OK thanks Ger!

Rattm is a name that comes up quite a lot and they offer a complete set of 20mm rails,bearings,1605 ballscrews,mountings etc 1000mm,700mm,400mm, for £362 delivered, which compared to the others above appears to be the bargain of the century.... but is anyone brave enough to buy a set???

[ger21]

I bought two spindles from Ratt. They seem to work fine, but the finish quality on them is subpar. But they were the cheapest spindles I could find at the time.

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Also, you don't really want to use ballscrews with a 5mm pitch. 10mm pitch is a much better choice.

[richard-at-home]

I bought two spindles from Ratt. They seem to work fine, but the finish quality on them is subpar. But they were the cheapest spindles I could find at the time.

- - - Updated - - -

Also, you don't really want to use ballscrews with a 5mm pitch. 10mm pitch is a much better choice.

Agreed. I've asked them for a quote with 1610 for x and y...

[jahnj0584]

Check out Automation Overstock!

[j3dprints]

Any recommended suppliers for fixed ends of ball screws, with the angular contact bearings I've read about on cnccookbook? Does one angular contact bearing suffice if it has two opposed rows of balls in it?


Also, can you buy an extra 'nut' for a single nut ballscrew? A supplier I've heard is good (BST Automation) seems to sell only single nut ballscrews in the diameters I desire (20mm and 25mm).

[jahnj0584]

do you mean ballnut? Ask them to add a second or simply order another one. They are about35$ a pop or so if I remember correctly.

I'd personally make my own. The BK and BF ones off ebay seem to all use regular bearings, and are loosey goosey with the counterbores for the bearing surfaces, resulting in the whole screw shifting.