[CNC] Tell Me About Ball Screws

[cs900]

After you anneal and machine it, do you then need to re-harden it? I recently made a small custom carving gouge (for wood) where I had to soften, shape and then re-harden. For the re-hardening, I just heated it again and quenched it in a little hydraulic oil. Does that sound about right or is there a better method?

caj

not needed at all. The areas you machine are at the very ends of the screw where the ballnuts will never reach, so there is no need to re-harden them.

 

[Wreck™Wreck]

No need to anneal, use a hard turning insert to get through the case then turn, thread and key as normal, CBN works well

This is a drop from a Nook 1" 4 TPI ballscrew with 4 starts (1.000" Lead), I part them to 14" in length from 6' stock screws, turn a bearing diameter on both ends and a drive pulley diameter with keyway on one end without annealing.
100 or more per year. I part them with a 6MM wide plain old carbide insert tool which is easier then bandsawing them.
The interrupted cut is a bit rough on tooling but is preferable to questionable annealing.