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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
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    Bunbury
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    Default Help or advice required please. Converting lathe cross slide to ballscrew.

    I hope I am in the right area of the forum to raise this question. I have a TM1960G lathe which has a worn lead screw in the cross slide and would dearly love to convert it to a quality German ballscrew set up. I have not the slightest knowledge of how to do this but I am willing to listen to any and all who can educate me to achieve the desired out come? Regards All Norm

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Melbourne
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    35
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    1,522

    Default

    A ballscrew can be backdriven because of the low friction so it will need a decent way to lock the slide once it has been advanced. Also the nuts are quite large and can be hard to fit.

    Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    South of Adelaide
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    1,225

    Default

    Unless you are doing a cnc conversion it wont work. as said above a ball screw will backdrive, on a CNC this is overcome by the motor holding the screw in position.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Location
    Bunbury
    Posts
    63

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by snapatap View Post
    Unless you are doing a cnc conversion it wont work. as said above a ball screw will backdrive, on a CNC this is overcome by the motor holding the screw in position.
    Thank you kindly for this advice. I had thought I was heading in the right direction to eliminate most back lash and variation. Seems as if a new lead screw is the only answer? I am surprised no one has come up with some way around this problem ? Would some form of indentation or pawl/lock on the dials be possible or even a magnetic or electrical feed lock. Regards To All Norm

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    South of Adelaide
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    1,225

    Default

    why do you think your screw is worn? I have used a lot of very well used lathes and never encountered one that had a screw so worn it was unuseable.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
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    Default

    A ballscrew can work on a manual machine but you have to have an absolutely positive lock.

    Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Norwood-ish, Adelaide
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    59
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    6,540

    Default

    That lathe seems to be in current production, so if you contacted H&F, you should be able to buy a new leadscrew for it. If the leadscrew is badly worn you will may need to replace the nut as well. If you are lucky, the wear may mostly be on one part (nut or screw)

    Michael

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Melbourne
    Age
    34
    Posts
    1,075

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Betnorm View Post
    Would some form of indentation or pawl/lock on the dials be possible or even a magnetic or electrical feed lock. Regards To All Norm
    That sounds like a solution looking for a problem. Indentations mean that you could only move in fixed increments, which is not ideal, and those steps would need to be fairly large to engage positively, which is even less ideal.

    The leadscrew had been used on basically every lathe since forever, why go adding complexity where it doesn't need to be?

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