Yes, I am very happy with my find, as you can imagine!
Is there anyway to order new balls for the bearing block that has lost its balls? How much would that cost?
At the moment I do not have a way to make a good Z-axis. I could, in theory mount one of the two plates with the NSK bearings on the Y-axis and have almost 30" of Z-travel. I wonder if that is a good idea though. Perhaps if I built it like the one at rainnea graphics:
http://www.rainnea.com/5-Axis-Router-3.jpg
The x-axis rails up high with the large z-axis dropping down.
Another question I have is, will it be okay to drive only one side of the x-axis, not having the ballscrew in the middle of the moving way? I know this can cause binding problems in MDF/skatebearing/allthread machines, but is it really an issue with these high quality components? If it really is an issue I have to scrap that rainnea idea.