X2 Hoss X Axis mod Question

[Hellbringer]

ok guys need some advise. i am converting my mill and i am extending the x and the y axis at the same time and i have ran into a small problem. When hoss did it he cut a channel in the saddle to make it so that the ballscrew would fit though the saddle. now here come my problem hoss used round ball nuts, i bought my ball nuts from roton so mine are square. if i where to cut the cannel in the saddle with the square ball nuts i would cut it in half. there is not not enought material to pull it off. so if i cant go down i must go up right??? well that is the question can i cut a slot in the column and still have it strong enought to be able to with stand the pressure the mill is going to put on it. so it would no longer be a box it would be a G so to say.

now the gears kept turning and turning and i came up with another idea that is possiable but will be a little more diffacult. i thought about cutting the slot in the column and then getting some steel channel ( or rectangular tube) and welding that into the slot cut in the bottom so now insteed of cutting the roof off for the ball nut i am just raising the roof. the question i have for that one is can i weld to the column? will it melt? (i dont see any reason why it would but you never know)

thanks in advance
Mike

[hoss2006]

Like th pics show in the DVD-ROM, there wasn't enough room for the round
ballnut either, so I mounted it on the outside of the saddle.
I could/should have made the extended x axis ballscrew mount longer
to accommodate double nuts and keep the full 18 inches of travel.
Hoss

[maxboostbusa]

I used Roton on mine also they are a bit of a challange. I ground the corners off some and ground a small groove to allow the nut to sit flat. It was alot of grinding and fitting to get it to work. I'll try to get some pictures this weekend with the table off. I am needing to get them for my site Im starting anyway. Hoss has some good pics of the round ones on his site though.