# Ball screw backlash

**URL:** <https://forum.onefinitycnc.com/t/ball-screw-backlash/23764>\
**Category:** Uncategorized\
**Created:** [December 2, 2023, 4:23pm UTC](https://forum.onefinitycnc.com/t/ball-screw-backlash/23764 "2023-12-02T16:23:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 17

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**Author:** ![TMToronto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ea924/32.png) [@TMToronto](https://forum.onefinitycnc.com/u/TMToronto)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2023, 7:53pm UTC](https://forum.onefinitycnc.com/t/ball-screw-backlash/23764/17 "2023-12-03T19:53:16Z")

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May I encourage you to record the results of your testing method and results both before and after - should you choose to replace your ball nut with another stock replacement - as it would be interesting for us to compare the data.

I became interested in your question, so I just did a quick set up - see photo - trying to isolate just the ‘play’ in the ball nut. When applying 50N of force to the Y axis block, there was about 30 microns of movement.

Earlier, to satisfy my own curiosity (and to gather empirical data), I investigated the amount of deflection I could achieve at 3 different locations on my Woodworker X50. Without getting in to too much detail, When looking at my scatter plots I found that (in my testing up to 50N push/or pull):

1. the greatest deflection, not surprisingly was at the endmill (in my case I have ISO20 ATC toolholders, measured at the collet/endmill) with a range of 110-210 microns at 50N
2. the deflection varied in the X and Y axis direction
3. adding the 3rd rail reduced deflection in all tests and directions of applied force
4. the force/deflection curves remained linear (for my test force range)

I have been mostly interested in machining aluminum, and have had great results (for me) using effective and conservative cut parameters and toolpaths. After collecting my deflection data, I used a few programs I collected to look at (theoretical) cut forces for the spindle I have and the chip loads I usually aim for. From my machine and machining data, it seems to confirm that I am able to keep deflection in a range where it has limited impact on the quality of my cuts.

 ![IMG_20231203_1418373](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/uploads/onefinitycnc/original/3X/4/b/4bb66592da25f0c835eda10ede38d80053717b48.jpeg)

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