Luthier CNC

[Voicecoil]

there is a little patchiness to the motion - there are occasional slight sticking points which require a bit more force than just two fingers can apply

BTW, did you check the ballscrew for smoothness throughout its' length before mounting it?? As I mentioned in my thread here: http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/12524-gritty-ballscrews , although Fred tries hard to please, his engineers don't always seem to adhere to the old saying "cleanliness is Godliness" when it comes to machining ballscrews. Even the replacement parts he sent me needed a clean, strip down, flush through and re-grease before they were acceptably smooth. Try running (twisting) the sticky portions through a piece of clean tissue and then examine under magnification to see if there's any small flakes of swarf.

[bluesking]

BTW, did you check the ballscrew for smoothness throughout its' length before mounting it?? As I mentioned in my thread here: http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/12524-gritty-ballscrews , although Fred tries hard to please, his engineers don't always seem to adhere to the old saying "cleanliness is Godliness" when it comes to machining ballscrews. Even the replacement parts he sent me needed a clean, strip down, flush through and re-grease before they were acceptably smooth. Try running (twisting) the sticky portions through a piece of clean tissue and then examine under magnification to see if there's any small flakes of swarf.

I think you may be right. I need to dismantle much of my machine anyway so best get to cleaning the ballscrews!

In my hurry I didn't attach the nipples to my HIWIN carriages so this is probably a good opportunity to do that as well. I see you have made a post about these nipples: Do you know if the following are a good way to go for greasing the carriages? Are they also suitable for greasing ballscrews/nuts?

https://www.toolstation.com/laser-grease-gun/p29224
https://www.toolstation.com/lithium-grease/p89691

[AndyUK]

I think you may be right. I need to dismantle much of my machine anyway so best get to cleaning the ballscrews!

In my hurry I didn't attach the nipples to my HIWIN carriages so this is probably a good opportunity to do that as well. I see you have made a post about these nipples: Do you know if the following are a good way to go for greasing the carriages? Are they also suitable for greasing ballscrews/nuts?

https://www.toolstation.com/laser-grease-gun/p29224
https://www.toolstation.com/lithium-grease/p89691

Thats what I use, and it works on the ballnuts that Fred has sent me. I think the nipples for the HGR20s are the same, but I haven't gotten that far yet. Highly recommend the flexible extension for the gun, and don't try loading the grease gun for the first time in toolstation's car park when you're inside the car. Not a clean experience. Worth watching a youtube video or two on loading, attaching, and de-attaching grease guns if you've never had the pleasure to using them before, there are a couple of nuances.

This is the flexible bit I'm talking about:
https://www.toolstation.com/laser-gr...nnector/p33147

[bluesking]

Thats what I use, and it works on the ballnuts that Fred has sent me. I think the nipples for the HGR20s are the same, but I haven't gotten that far yet. Highly recommend the flexible extension for the gun, and don't try loading the grease gun for the first time in toolstation's car park when you're inside the car. Not a clean experience. Worth watching a youtube video or two on loading, attaching, and de-attaching grease guns if you've never had the pleasure to using them before, there are a couple of nuances.

This is the flexible bit I'm talking about:
https://www.toolstation.com/laser-gr...nnector/p33147

Thanks Andy,
Just got back from toolstation with the gun, but didn't get the flexible hose, looks like I'll be going back!

One question, how do you grease your ballscrews? There is no nipple I can see...

[AndyUK]

One question, how do you grease your ballscrews? There is no nipple I can see...

There isn't a nipple on the screw itself. The bits that move are the bearings and the ballnut - the rest just needs a slight surface coating to protect the metal. The bearings are sealed, so its just the ballnut that needs the gun.

I over-greased the ballnut and then ran it up and down the screw to smeer the grease all around. The other way would be to smeer some grease with a finger all the way along, then run the ballnut up and down a few times.

[Lee Roberts]

Make a new video so we can see and hear whats happening now you've tweaked it some more!

I was about to say the same as Voicecoil re making sure everything is clean, I always suggest people do that with the nut's because I don't think I've seen one yet that didn't have crap inside from the factory.

It can be tricky and the balls will fall out if you remove the nut from the screw, that's OK because your going to flush it all out and clean everything anyway but it can be a little time consuming reloading all the balls back in, to do this pack the nut with some grease first, enough to hold them in place not literally "packed".

The trick is getting the nut back on the screw without dislodging any of the balls, its very doable but equally easy to try and go to fast and knock the balls back out when your trying to thread the nut back on.

While/if your there, count how many balls you've got out altogether, its common for some to be missing from the 17 per track on a 1605 ball nut (even from BST).

Have another read of this thread re nipples and so on, you can include the ball nut: http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/12835

Also (for everyone), if you read the document from Hiwin on the their Linear Guideways it has quite allot of info, Page 27 (2-1-7 Lubrication), shows you info on the grease nipple and ALSO the additional mounting locations built into the blocks so you can move the nipple if you want to: https://www.hiwin.com/pdf/linear_guideways.pdf