Definately a scrapyard challenge

**motoxy** · 04-01-2012

Hey I enjoy seeing people put their theorise to the test. I have a budget but I also like do the best I can. As I already have the screws then thats fine. The upgrade to a water cooled spindle was good advice and still stays , just, in budget. If I cannot afford it then as you say I will save. Biggest problem is deciding in what order to buy stuff.

I will do a sketchup of my gantry redesign and get some coments. probably at the weekend.

Thanks again
Bruce

**motoxy** · 05-01-2012

Right...cough... remember when you were a young engineer you always had to know how things worked. I remember taking a clock apart, and my electric train, my mums iron. Then I got into motorcycles and that was great fun. been doing it for 45 years with varying degrees of success. Always have to find out how they work and maybe put them back together. Well.. oh dear I am not sure how to say this....I was very interested in exactly how the ball screw worked. You guessed it. I unscrewed it and the balls fell out. After spending the last hour trying to rebuild it I realised that the plastic bungs are where they put the balls in and then press hot plastic in to close it off. Is this now an ex ballscrew system or is it fixable? Thankfully it was the shorter one if it has to be replaced.
On that high note of failure goodnight

Bruce (yes i am going to spend the night standing in the corner)

**Jonathan** · 05-01-2012

Just to be clear, all my previous comments about 10mm over 5mm pitch were referring only to X and Y. Also a 5mm pitch screw can still backdrive on Z (mine does) if it's aligned well.

I took the ballnut off once just to see what all the fuss was about. I spend a while trying various methods of poking the balls back it which didn't really work. The easiest way (other than buying just a new ballnut) is to get a very strong magnet and stick it to the side of the ballnut. then you can carefully place the balls back in one after the other as they'll stick to the nut inside. Then you machine/find a bar that's just under the pitch diameter of the ballscrew minus the diameter of one ball so it just slides in (doesn't have to be accurate as long as the balls can't fall out). Introduce the ballscrew into the nut allowing it to push out the bar as you turn it on. Only took about 10 mins once I'd found the magnet (2"x1"x0.5" neodymium).

You can also try putting grease on the balls so they stick to the nut inside, but that's not as effective as the magnet. I think you should demagnetise the nut afterwards.

**motoxy** · 05-01-2012

You university boys so darn clever. This is definatly something to tackle at the weekend.

Good night all

bruce

**motoxy** · 05-01-2012

Ok Ok I promise to do a redesign on the gantry

. I have learnt more in a few days here, mainly how little I know but I am so grateful for all your help.

**Swarfing** · 06-01-2012

Dog with Bone? :rofl:

**Swarfing** · 06-01-2012

ok but no kissing please:heehee:

**wiatroda** · 06-01-2012

I wonder what would happen to lock in Jazz and Jonathan in a big brother house. Make them to make ONE cnc machine.
That would be most interesting BB ever. For a first time I would watch it.

**JAZZCNC** · 06-01-2012

Originally Posted by wiatroda

I wonder what would happen to lock in Jazz and Jonathan in a big brother house. Make them to make ONE cnc machine.
That would be most interesting BB ever. For a first time I would watch it.

Easy question to answer.!!. . . My bezzy mate and I would agree to disagree then have it built in record time both hopefully learning something new in the process:tup:

**wiatroda** · 06-01-2012

For me and I bet for many others both of you are great source of knowledge and experience. You just have totally different approach hence you are great contributions to this forum complementing one another.
Both of you developing one project would create perfect WHOLE :tup: