Hey guys, I’ve been fighting ball screws. Most request I get for them come from this group. Through Eric Lien I learned that I cannot chuck on these in a lathe with a 3 or 4 jaw, so I ordered 5C collets. After researching I found I had to anneal them, then manually grind off the threads to remove the interrupted cut. One gentleman has been pretty patient with me, and after holding for a while I got the right feeds and speeds and made a set for him. The cuts were accurate and beautiful.
Post this I laid them up in my machined V blocks and started checking run out. There was a .1mm run out noted on all ends. I spent hours trying to figure out why. The 12mm 5C collet I ordered has a flaw, the center is .05mm off set. Hard to put into words how upset I was. 8 hours of my time, holding a builder up, an expensive 5C collet and 3 trashed ball screws later, my blood pressure was not in a healthy zone.
I want to get this gentleman a set or at least reference him to a provider that can ensure the same quality I would expect in a production part. Where are those of you that are making the ball screw hack getting yours from? Hate outsourcing, but I do not want to hold this gentleman’s build up any longer while I fight with the collet manufacturer.