New balls for screw rod ?

[vroemm]

Hi..

I lost about 6 of the balls of a screw rod with ball bearing.
They are 2.38 mm round.
Do shops sell these balls as replacement ?

[mackeym]

i'm guessing you're talking about balls for a ball screw. 2.38mm=3/32" there are a bunch of ebay auctions selling 3/32" chrome steel balls. This kind of ball is commonly used in bearing based devices.

[stevehuckss396]

3/32 of an inch is .09375 converted to metric is 2.38125000000943. I get them 50 at a time on ebay. You might need to look for something more precision but 3/32 is common.

[neilw20]

What's with the 000000943 part.
How you gonna measure that accurate?
Let alone the 125 part which is less than half a tenth?
Get real.

[stevehuckss396]

Originally Posted by neilw20 What's with the 000000943 part. How you gonna measure that accurate? Let alone the 125 part which is less than half a tenth? Get real.

That was a cut and paste from a mm to inch conversion program. get over it.

[skmetal7]

^ lol

[Khalid]

go to any pencil grinder repair shop get the bearing from them remove the balls from the bearing

[vroemm]

Originally Posted by mackeym i'm guessing you're talking about balls for a ball screw. 2.38mm=3/32" there are a bunch of ebay auctions selling 3/32" chrome steel balls. This kind of ball is commonly used in bearing based devices.

What a relief.

Thanks !

[dhookings]

AAMOI how did you know that you lost exactly 6. I spilled a load of balls over my desk before I even knew what a ballscrew was. I don't know if any hit the floor, but I gathered up all that I could and refitted them by using grease. They were about 1mm diameter, smaller than yours. Anyway, I screwed it back on and could not feel any axial movement so reasembled the drive. Everything works fine, but now I wonder if the grease will cause problems some time and did I get them all back in?
Perhaps someone could advise?

Dave

[neilw20]

All grease is, is a medium to hold oil.
The problem with grease is dust and dirt get stuck on it more readily.

[vroemm]

Originally Posted by dhookings AAMOI how did you know that you lost exactly 6.

I did not know exactly.

Luckily 100 balls of 2.381 mm cost only about 4 euro.
Pleasant surprise.

did I get them all back in?

I push the balls against each other, making room for the next one.
Until no ball will fit.
Then there will be a lot left over to play around with.

[rexstep]

You don't want to try to match new balls in with the originals. You need to replace all of them. If you add six new balls in and they're even .0001" larger than the ones you have, only the new ones will engage the screw properly while the originals will tend to float. If they're smaller even by a tenth, there's no point in having them.

-Rick L.