Origionally I assumed that z-axis backlash on my TAIG mill was at the nut. I took the head assembly apart and realized this was not true! The Z-axis endplate (red square in the pic) was not "tight" to the screw assembly which left .011 backlash on the Z. I took the nut off the screw assembly (red circle in the pic) and lightly tapped down a few times with a hammer and re-tightened the nut. Probably a no-brainer to alot of you but this was a source for many problems to me.

Yes, you need to make sure the leadscrew is against the bearing, not floating. You do want the slide to be loose enough that gravity takes up the backlash in the nut though.

Origionally I assumed that z-axis backlash on my TAIG mill was at the nut. I took the head assembly apart and realized this was not true! The Z-axis endplate (red square in the pic) was not "tight" to the screw assembly which left .011 backlash on the Z. I took the nut off the screw assembly (red circle in the pic) and lightly tapped down a few times with a hammer and re-tightened the nut. Probably a no-brainer to alot of you but this was a source for many problems to me.

This was an old post, but it helped solve my backlash problem on the Z axis. The tapping with a hammer didn't seem necessary in my situation. All I needed was a little tightening of the nut (red circle in pic). I went from .009 backlash to a little more than .001

Thanks,

Al Z.