Hi All

[John S]

Peter, I fancied doing an X1 for my daughter to replace the Taig mill, at ally Pally about 3 years ago there was a guy selling ballscrew's off [ don't laugh ] hospital beds. Seems they had to swap these every so often and most had never been used.
He wanted £25 each for them and they were just long enough to do the X on a long series X1, I wanted 4, three for the mill and one for a Z axis on a small lathe.
Alan from Arc wanted 3, another guy at the show was converting his X1 and wanted 3 and I rang another guy and he said yes to 3 if we could get a decent price, so finished up buying 15 all together for £12.00 each.

They just fitted under the bed with about 1/16" milled off the bottom.

It made a nice machine but I sold it to make a bit of room when I knew the KX prototype was on it's way over from China.

Never saw the guy with the ballscrew's again but stopped doing Ally pally now anyway, too expensive to stand there.

.

[ptjw7uk]

John what did you mill the 1/16 off, I had to mill some of the spare Y carriage I bought so as the ball nut had enough clearance not the best solution but it worked.
Only worry I have now is that the Marchant ball nuts do not have wipers so am now pondering how to fit them.

Peter

[ptjw7uk]

I dont know what make they are, 12mm diameter ones I got from Marchant Dice which they appear not to supply now. They did say that wipers were not available so I thought I could use felt or rubber but knowing so little about ball screws i do not know.
My main job at the moment is get them all fitted. I have also wondered if the z-axis stepper will not be powerful enough to raise the head without some form of assistance.

Peter

[John S]

Peter,

On the one I did I used type 23's all round, the 180 Ncm or 250 oz / in ones, 3 amp drivers at 30 volts, direct drive on the X and Y and 2:1 belt reduction on the Z.

The 1/16" was taken off the underside of the bed to clear the nut block but different nuts may, or may not need this.

Been looking for some pics but can't find them, I know I took some of the bed having the channel being milled.

It worked very well for it's size, a lot faster than the Taig but then again the Taig was still on 20 tpi screws

.

[ptjw7uk]

I will get some pictures of them and also look for an ident number, I have just found something similar on Nook industries a type FG ball nut with the m20x1 thread and they list 2, one with a wiper and one without so I may have the ones without wipers.
I suppose I could get in touch with Marchant Dice to find the manufacturer.
Thats the trouble with this lark one step forward and 2 back. So far everything that I have tried has ended up by having to buy more tools and then seek the knowledge on how to machine a part.