Help the newbie convert a mill/drill

[109jb]

Harty,

I forgot to ask, How well does the Z-axis work with driving it throught the factory "fine feed". My z-axis has a good amount of slop. I was thinking about that method, but am leary because fo the slop.

Thanks again,

John B.

[harty]

Hi john

the ballscrews are 5/8 and there 5tpi
i am using stock bearings just added a brass bush to the end od the x axis where the belt sprocket is
both the ballnuts are threaded into the mounting block and you just screw one in or out to remove the backlash and then lock with the grub screw
to set this up all i did was put 2 nuts on the thread wind them in till the gap in the middle was bit bigger than the mounting block then measure the distance from the outside of one nut to the other then remove the thread then screw both nuts into the mounting block till the distance was the same as measured and inset the ball thread works a treat

y axis drives from where the original handle was which uses the adapters shown
the x axis uses the adapter to handel the backlash the i just drive straigt to the tread with the pulley held on with grubscrews at the other end i did this cos the machine was setup that way when i did the cnc conversion 3 yeas ago
im using propriery stepper controllers and motors not sure of the brand but they come out of some suplus photographic machines they are also 5 phase which meas you get 500steps per revolution so at 5tpi 1:1 to the motors you 2500 step per inch
the zaxis has heaps of backlash i have ballscrews to put on this but its a bit more work also its not much of an issue for me as i dont do much profile cutting