trapezoidal rod + leadscrews

Our CNC inspired bretheren will know all about this stuff already but less informed users like myself may not be aware of the huge range of potential leadscrews out there at not-alot-of-money prices just now

trapezoidal rod is very easy to obtain and can be used for upgrading almost any old lathe with a knackered leadscrew and comes in lengths of up to 3 metres from the usual suspects as well as the wider net

It's all metric of course but it's never been easier or cheaper to sort out a leadscrew issue

Edited By Ady1 on 04/01/2021 07:42:30

I concur, some years ago I bought a 1 metre length of leadscrew and two bronze nuts for around £65/£70 (memory ?) I had enough to replace the cross slide screw on my lathe plus make up a spare screw and nut. I still have the spare and a bit of the unused leadscrew.

Has anyone done this to a Myford Seven and, if so, how did they replace the half nuts?

Can't find 2.5mm pitch for us Boxford owners though.

W.

This may also be of interest **LINK** for imperial screws etc

John

Good question, half nuts are often complex castings made using jigs. I assume Chris Evans 6 has a more sensible machine.

Should not be too hard to machine down an off the shelf nut, split it in half and silver solder to another bit of bronze that can be shaped to match the rest of the cast item.

The museum's Smart & Brown model A has a 3mm pitch cross slide leadscrew with two long bronze nuts and as the machine is imperial, the scale is now 0-118 instead of the original leadscrews 8tpi 0-125. Backlash is set at 0.001".

Edited By old mart on 04/01/2021 18:35:00

I have bookmarked the ABSSAC link from JohnF as I was interested in the 1 x 5 ACME and will probably check whether LH is available and for the price of a couple of feet. It would be for the Tom Senior knee which I have tooled up to make nuts for when the CO19 allows.