Ballscrew or leave alone?

[Ross77]

ballscrews all the way...worth 20 times the cost of the leadscrews.

What he said..

You can easily get rid of backlash in lead screws by tensioning (or compressing) two nuts together but the resultant friction is often more of a problem than the backlash. My little mill has has this type of anti-backlash and I can get pretty much zero backlash but the friction is so high it is difficult to turn the hand wheel and impossible to get smooth motion. as already pointed out this will also result in the screw wearing out quickly.

The halfway house is to use brass nuts and a hydraulic tensioning system to self adjust for the wear and then replace the nuts as when they totally wear out. but by the time you set that up it is probably easier and cheaper to get a ball screw.

Don't be tempted to use delrin, been there done that and it has no place in milling machine. I've learnt from my mistakes and I'm getting ball screws for the next one.