How to get the balls back in a ballnut?

[Shinobiwan]

Managed to get them back in last night. Spent about an hour fumbling around with the first circuit of bearings then hit upon a trick and the remaining two circuits were done in about 10 minutes.

Only problem now is the ball nut feels a tad notchy at irregular intervals when turning. Its not binding tight just a moment of slight resistance then it free's up. At first I thought I'd gone and got a ball somewhere it shouldn't be so stripped it down again and took a more methodical approach. Cleaned everything again, separated the 48 bearings into 3 piles of 16 and carefully loaded them back in.

Still the same notchiness... hmm. This was a Strike CNC supplied ballnut/ballscrew and I can't say for sure if it wasn't like that before I spilled the bearings. Maybe I've knackered it up with playing around but I like to think Strike CNC, struck again!

EDIT: Seems to run smooth if you load the ballnut. Strange. Any thoughts?

[Clive S]

I have just come across this Linearmotionbearings C7 Ballnut Flipping and Repacking - YouTube as it shows in the vid how to re fill ball nuts etc. Clive

[John S]

That's assuming you have the same diameter at both ends of the screw.
If he'd just used a tube, no flanges and a couple of winds of tape round one end it then possible to use the same loading tube to switch to the same end. Just swap the 'safety' tape over.