help me find Hardened Precision Balls

[h_2_o]

I've been looking everywhere for a specific ball and i can not find them. if anyone has any idea where i might be able to find the following item Hardened Precision Balls at either .127 or .128 grade 25? I've looked at mcmaster and they only have .125 i cant find any other place on line that has them either. if anyone has any suggestions please let me know

[lakeside]

try to find 3.25mm balls 3.25mm=.128

[lakeside]

also you might try an auto parts or local bearing suplier

[NC Cams]

Winstead Precision Ball

I think they are in Conneticut.

They have grade 100's, 25's, 10's and 3's last time I bought them but be prepared to buy several hundred....

[h_2_o]

looks like winstead precision ball may have what i need. however i can not find any distributors that sell thier stuff. mind if i ask where you got them from when you ordered?

thanks

[NC Cams]

Duh, try www.winball.com

[Adobe Machine]

Salem Speciality Ball Co, click Chrome 52100, click inventory inches or metric.class 25 or better, no limit, approx cost 0.023 to 0.036 each. FYI, if you are trying to stuff .127 or .128 oversize in a .124 or .125 for a ball nut, unless it is really worn, most likley you can not...start with 0.0005 plus oversize ( .1255,.1258 etc).Because of accumulated oversize, a lot goes a long way. Remember , its a F-U-N job !

[h_2_o]

didn't think of accumulated oversize on it. thanks a lot for the info. considering they are new screws and nuts with just a bit of slop i'll see if i can find the .1255 first and see if that works out.

thanks for the info, and i'm sure i'll have more questions as time goes on.

[Mr Wizard]

I got 200 .128 balls from Ball-tec ,(www.precisionballs.com)
for 49.00$ including shipping 2 months ago. I got a quote online But had to call them to order

[h_2_o]

ok, let me go over what i have and let me know what size balls you think i should try first.

rockford ballscrew and nut. the ball size is .125. when i contacted rockford they told me that all thier rolled ballscrews have a .004 to .007 slop in them. they would put oversized balls in the nutts for a large premium. I was trying to get it out a bit cheaper. anyway knowing this i would like to get the slop down to .002 or less w/o double nutting it (size prohibits this) and just using oversized balls.

thanks again for all the help

[Adobe Machine]

The "premium price"is because it is almost an Art, not science, and there is some experimentation.Not many of us can afford a set of .125 chrome 5120 balls in lots of oversize sets...If the ball screws are in good shape ,might try .0005 over (.1255) ist, then add from there.If you get a few of the wrong oversize (too large),you can jam the ball nut real hard and damage the shaft or nut trying to get it back apart.I had a shaft apart recently that had 4 different size oversize balls in it, and had operated that way for some time quite well according to the owner.Another I just saw ,had .002 over balls in it , but would almost lock up when the mill warmed up.They had damaged the shaft and nut beyond repair.The owner said one of his recent employees had installed the oversize balls.Cost them Big Bucks for replacement.
The biggest backlash problem is actually poor,improper or improperly installed ball shaft to table bearings. Search this site for a wealth of information for correct bearings and procedures.

[h_2_o]

thanks for the heads up and i am working in other areas with backlash, i just figured if there wa a place that i could help get rid of that little bit it heck why not try.

i'll go with .1255 first and see how it goes.