Left hand, Metric Ball screws?

[fatal-exception]

Anyone know of any company that carries left hand metric ball screws?

I need a 16-2 for the cross slide on my lathe. I don't want to change the pitch, or the handwheel grads will be off.

Thanks,
Paul

[Mike Everman]

Check Misumi USA. I don't see it in the print catalog, but didn't look very long. Their site is great.
Certainly easy if you use trapezoidal or acme screws.

[Al_The_Man]

Are you sure it is a ballscrew?
It is unusual to have a ball screw on a manual lathe, due to the possibility of backfeeding.
If it is regular thread, you could always cut one.
Al.

[fatal-exception]

Thanks Mike. I would use a servoBelt if it were the proper application.

Al, it's a ACME screw in there right now, but I'm cnc'ing it so I would like to use a ball screw. Do you think this is a bad idea? I would also like to keep the manual handwheel for non cnc type stuff, I didn't really think about the backdrive issue.

Paul

[Al_The_Man]

If CNC'ing you really need to go ball screw, and I prefer to use either MDI or Handwheel (electronic) for simple manual functions.
Al.

[fatal-exception]

Yeah, I'm just thinking of the times where I don't want to turn on the computer to do some simple little job, hence keeping the real handwheel.

Paul