Rebuilding &/or Replacing BALL NUTS

A misadventure in re-balling a ball nut!

[@Thirdrawn]

This is great! I'm about to sit on the toilet for 20 minutes to escape my children and now I've got something to do! Thanks, TOT!

[@TimeBucks]

Thanks for the great video!

[@lolbbq4023]

The moral of the story is that the real ball nuts are the friends we made along the way

[@ross302ci]

I had an engineering lecturer that had made his career in precision electromechanical systems, and when he was discussing linear actuator choices (lead screws, ball screws, roller screws) he spoke of roller screws with such reverence. Also said they were really expensive. Anyway, he brought one with really fine threads one day to show us what he'd been talking about, let us mess around with it and stuff. If I'm honest, I still think about it often. It was so smooth, so quiet, so heavy. Unbelievably satisfying. There's no story here, I just don't know who else to talk to about this. Other people in my life just don't want to hear about my college experiences with roller screws.

[@BRUXXUS]

There's VERY few KZbinrs that can make a 20 minute video feel like 5 minutes, and Tony is one of them. Every video is such a treat. Thank you.

[@notmuch_23]

I believe the lesson is: even if fixing something doesn't work, the attempt is likely still educational, and therefore still worthwhile.

[@raindeergames6104]

Hey Tony thay looks like a SFU20 or SFU25 "ball nut" You're using there. Take a look at the DFU20 or DFU25. They are "double ball nuts" and has twice the internal load bearing area and twice the amount of balls plus..... you can adjust the tolerance between the two and completely eliminate any backlash. Absolutely love You vids man.🎉

[@sirmiyu]

i don't know how ToT does it but he can make me watch a 20 minutes video about grass growing and still be the most entertaining thing of the week.

[@OmegaGamingNetwork]

As someone who also tries alternatives to repair things, especially expensive things I really appreciate honest videos like this. The reality in so many cases is that sometimes the only real answer is buying another part. Far too many youtubers give this impression that anything can be fixed without buying anything, which simply isn't the case. Sure it is fun to try and absolutely a valuable learning experience, but sometimes you simply don't have a choice.

[@kedo]

There's VERY few KZbinrs that can make a 20 minute video feel like 5 minutes, and Tony is one of them. Every video is such a treat. Thank you.

[@bajaDave]

Tony, I overhauled ball screws for the Air Force for many years. You can rebuild ballscrews as long as the chrome on the screw is still intact AND there isn’t any wear on the inside of the ballnut. Wear inside the ballnut will appear as galling or fretting just on either side or the return tubes. The tracks should be shinny, but the worn areas will appear dull and the dull area will grow longer if they aren’t overhauled properly.

[@boges11]

The moral of the story is: Don't lose your balls to a cheap screw.

[@CheveeDodd]

Here we are again, absolutely enthralled in a 20 minute video about a topic for which I have absolutely no aspirations of ever needing. I love it!. 🙃

[@iowncho]

I think the real moral is that giving the cheap fix a try is almost always worth the knowledge gained alone, and sometimes it even works! 😅

[@johnmtaylor5878]

Always enjoy your videos. As a young engineer, I worked in a facility that made custom ball screws. I recall that a certain amount of the circuit is kept empty to facilitate the free travel of the balls and limit ball to ball friction. It changes based on ball size. The point being, next time you rebuild, you don’t want to put every ball you can fit into each circuit. Cheers!

[@Ben-Dixey]

Nice video Tony, I used to make Ball screws for a company called Thompson IBL, they had a great name for quality in their day. Loading the balls we had solid shafts, no grease needed to hold the balls in place. We had draws of ball bearings in one micron increments and it wouldn't take much to go from backlash to a preloaded condition. Most ball screws had a preload tolerance which was measured with a spring balance. Wipers were always installed after the nut and were not tight against the nut as to not impact the preload.

[@mhc6777]

Thanks a million Tony, your attempted reconditioning of the original has taught me a lot about ball nuts and how they work. There is always something to learn from destructive repair work :)

[@kylebryant7979]

You know how to get your audience invested. I'm not a machinist and will probably never use a CNC mill but you still had my heart dropping when the new nut "spilled" balls 😂

[@grahameblankley3813]

I used to work at a Ballscrew factory in Coventry 🇬🇧 we made precision Ballscrews for machine tools & aerospace, I worked there 38yrs till the end 2005, you did very well there Tony great video thanks for sharing 🇬🇧👍.

[@crackpotfox]

You should remove the seals from the nut before putting it onto the arbor. It will help protect the seal since (the ones i sell) they aren't circular.