All about Ball Screws

The Sherline Miniature Machinist's Newsletter

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Number 92—September 2018

ALL ABOUT BALL SCREWS

We introduced our Ball Screw Retrofit Kits back in January 2018, but now we are starting to produce Ball Screw Mills. Our first ball screw mill is P/N 6858 18" CNC-Ready; it sits on an 18" base, has an 18" table, and a 15" nickel/Teflon coated column bed. This new line of ball screw mills will also be produced with 12" and 14" bases; these mills will have a standard 11" column bed, but they can be upgraded to the nickel/Teflon 15" column bed. Each size will be available in CNC-ready and full CNC configurations.

If you are looking to upgrade your CNC mill to ball screws, you're in luck. This month's special is our Mill Ball Screw XYZ-Axes Retrofit Kit (P/N 6830). There is a two to three week lead time for the retrofit kits. We are also offering our High-Torque Stepper Motor to help complete your mill conversion.

We also want to make sure your conversion goes smoothly, so we have produced some videos and posted them on our YouTube channel that help walk you through the installation and maintenance of your new ball screw kits. There are also demonstration videos showing the capabilities of our new ball screw machines.

For more on the benefits of Ball Screws, CLICK HERE.

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

P/N 6858 18" CNC-Ready Mill w/Ball Screws – NEW

This machine is based on our 18" NexGen 5800-series mill. The 18" mill base with ball screws comes with all new saddles developed for the ball screws, and #23 NEMA frame stepper-motor mounts with high-torque couplings.
Some of the standard equipment for the model 6858 CNC-ready mill includes:

Electroless nickel/Teflon coated mill saddle
18.0" x 2.75" table with two T-slots
7" x 13" tooling plate with three T-slots
15" mill column bed with nickel/Teflon coating
Headstock spacer block and more

Read more...

Buy Now

MONTHLY SPECIAL

Save 20% on Mill Ball Screw Upgrades

Your Choice of Our Mill Ball Screw XYZ-Axes Retrofit Kit or High-Torque Stepper Motors!
The Mill Ball Screw XYZ-Axes Retrofit Kit has an X/Y-mill saddle that has been beefed up to accommodate the larger ball screws, and it has an electroless nickel/Teflon coating. We made the Z-axis ball screw column saddle longer, which allows you to move the headstock closer to the top of the mill table. However, you will lose 1.4" of overall travel in the Z-axis.
Our high-torque stepper motor has the same NEMA #23 frame as our standard stepper motor, but it has over 75% more torque. The increased torque means that you can increase your feed rates. Read more...

Buy Now

SHOP TIP OF THE MONTH

Retrofitting a Sherline Mill with Ball Screw Assemblies

We have a number of videos that demonstrate the installation, maintenance, and use of our ball screws. Check out our "All about Ball Screws" playlist on our YouTube channel.
The following videos walk you through the steps of removing the leadscrews on a Sherline mill and replacing them with a ball screw retrofit kit.
Retrofitting a Sherline Mill with an X/Y-axes Ball Screw Saddle
Retrofitting a Sherline Mill with a Z-axis Ball Screw Column

Extreme Customer Projects

Pamela Weiss—Machining Large Steam Engine Castings

Pam is the lead toolmaker here at Sherline and produces all of our prototype parts before they are sent off for production. She is a machinist that works on all size tools. CLICK HERE to see how she uses Sherline tools to machine large steam engine castings.