Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

Dave, I just have to say that your neat freak type of life is commendable. I would love to be able to have my shop spotless every day. With a clean non cluttered shop productivity is so much better. I feel my shop is dirty even when it's clean. God bless you buddy.

Y axis ball screw came in today so I had to make sure everything was going to fit.

It does! With a .040" gauge block on top of the knee elevation screw, it centers on the existing hole just about perfect. There will be a 1" face plate to attache the thrust bearing and to mount the Teknic clearpath servo below out of the way.

This is the largest ball screw and nut that will fit into this machine, there just isn't any room for anything larger!

So metal is ordered to make the face plate and the ball nut mount. The ball nut mount will attach in the same fashion as the Grizzly lead screw nut did originally. The .749" attaching hole is around 1.000" deep through the middle of the web so that should be study enough to hold this thing in place.

Ball nut mount is drawn, just waiting on the delivery!

Dave C.

That's looking good Dave. That ballscrew looks to be a pretty good size?
It has to be nice working on new machine.....
Many folks will have a nice reference should they choose to do the same.
It might be nice if you can share your sources for the ballscrews etc.

Marty

Marty,

Good idea on the ball screws. These came from Automationoverstock.com and are made by Hiwin. This ball nut has 4 rows of balls. It is called a "Zero Backlash" nut and the specs say .0007" or less backlash.

Price was less than $100.00 US.

Includes the grease fitting and is shipped in a sealed plastic tube and is pre-greased.

Automation overstock.com is part of Automation 4 less.com (same company)

They also have the thrust bearings (with seals) motor mounts, motor couplings and ball nut mounting blocks for lathes or mills.

They feel great!

Dave C.

Dave_C wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2018 11:40 pm Marty,

Good idea on the ball screws. These came from Automationoverstock.com and are made by Hiwin. This ball nut has 4 rows of balls. It is called a "Zero Backlash" nut and the specs say .0007" or less backlash.

Price was less than $100.00 US.

Includes the grease fitting and is shipped in a sealed plastic tube and is pre-greased.

Automation overstock.com is part of Automation 4 less.com (same company)

They also have the thrust bearings (with seals) motor mounts, motor couplings and ball nut mounting blocks for lathes or mills.

They feel great!

Dave C.

Yeah, I am aware of them! I worked with them for new linear rails for the Omniturn slide I'll be fitting to an orphand Victor Toolroom lathe bed.
Coming....soon?

Progress Report:

It was -5 here yesterday so I spent the day making the ball nut carrier for the Y axis. It doesn't look like all that much but there are three clearance issues. Width of the slot in the table verses the width of the ball nut itself, the knee elevation screw head which ends up being about ,040" below the bottom of this nut and then the knee elevation crank assembly itself. The 45 degree chamfers are for clearance on the left side. Right side is just matched for looks!

Three pics.

One of the Grizzly Y axis lead screw and mount
One of the bull nut carrier I made which attaches just like the original lead screw split nut.
One with the ball nut carrier slide onto the ball screw (less the mounting screws) It is made of 1018 so there are some tool marks on it!
The ball screw is not cut to length yet but soon. Next to make the front plate to mount the thrust bearing and the Servo.

Dave C.

Looks good Dave!

More work:

I've been working on the front plate making a recess for the NEMA 34 Servo to mount on the backside. .600" deep pocket, 4 motor bolt slots, one motor shaft slot and a pocket for the nose of the motor "pilot" to fit into.

Then some cuts on top to match the contour of the mill knee and a pocket .325" deep for the thrust bearing to sit down in. This give me a better shot at alignment with the servo motor pulley. If you've never done one of these that may not make any sense, but once you see it finished you'll get the idea.

I still have some bolt holes to drill for the plate to mount to the knee but that will come later once I make the final alignment of the ball screw setup.



Dave C.

Progress Report:

I got the saddle mounted tonight and the X axis ball nut mount attached as well. The pocket for the X axis ball nut is .236" deep and this puts the ball screw right back to the original center line height.

The front plate needs the bolts put in and I'll do that tomorrow!

So far so good!
Next will be to cut the X axis ball screw to length, turn the end and then buy some Teknic Clearpath motors. Then I'll have a two axis mill for a while until I get the quill part done.

Dave C.

Very Nice work on your conversion. You'll have a very nice machine in no time!