How to machine a ball screw

[Tom_Nelson]

I used carbide tooling. When it is properly annealed however you can file the section you heated, so I imagine HSS should be fine.

IT is a good investment to buy some indexable insert tools and a good toolpost for the DB7.

I swapped the motor drive out for a Parker SSD DC drive after the original motor controller blew up literally. It give very good torque at low RPM and is fully adjustable.

I'm happy to say that after annealing the end of the ballscrew, I was able to cut it with little difficulty with a sharp HSS tool (see photo). Taking a 12mm ballscrew down to 10mm doesn't quite reach the bottom of the thread, but it'll still be fine to fit a bearing. Thanks for allthe good advice.

Now my next challenge is to find somebody near me (West Sussex) with a mill who would be able to help machine the cross-slide of my mill to fit the ball nuts.