I go over this a bit in the video I posted as well. Needless to say, I will not be making that mistake again! Once I got the burs filed off, I finally was able to get the ball screw rods assembled, and I got my measurements, and recorded them in OneNote.

After some advice from Jason, watching a couple YouTube videos, and about 2 frustrating hours, I was able to get successfully get the nut repacked.

I quickly grabbed a magnetic bowl to collect the bearings. I did not discover this until I had the nut partially off, and ball bearings started coming out. They are rounded so that ball bearings can travel inside of them. The reason they call these ball screws isn’t because the threads are rounded. In my effort to work on this, I decided to remove the nut from the screw. During the process of attaching the ball screws to the mounts, I discovered that one wouldn’t go on. As I mentioned in my first post, I already bought the rails and ball screws, along with the bearing guides, mounts, and other parts. While the materials is an important component, getting the right measurements is critical. After doing searches on the web, eBay, and a few other metal vendors, I have found the best price, after shipping, is 80/20. For example, I will need two lengths of angle aluminum. It really pays to do this, as one site may have a component for one price, and another for 50% less. This has involved considerable research, from Google searches to eBay. Part of what goes into coming up with a design to build this machine is researching materials, and more importantly the cost of these materials. Obviously the rails and ball screws are steal, but other components are going to be made from aluminum. While it is possible to build much of the machine from wood, and there are many good examples of CNC machines out there, for best rigidity going with metal is the best way to go. As I begin then process of the CNC Router build, I am going into new areas that I haven’t had much experience in.

Bosch ra1165