ballnut housing and floating end ballscrew assembly

[dsc]

Gents,

excuse the rather massive thread attack, but I'd rather ask than be sorry later.

Any reasons why ballnuts are normally mounted inside a housing rather than bolted on top? See attached drawing.



I've got limited space between the rails, linear bearings and mounting plates and a 1204 ballnut fits nicely with it's 25mm depth. Anything over this, like a 30mm deep housing in order to fit the ballnut inside, will make things bad.

Second question is for a 10mm ID bearing on a 12mm ballscrew, doable? I know not enough material to hold the bearing in place, so I'm planning to use a circlip to rest the bearing on, again see attached drawing. Stupid?



Thanks in advance for any advice.

Regards,
dsc.