Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] cleaning a ball screw

turbulatordude wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I picked up a rusted ball screw today. complete with nut. The shop
> had a roof leak and the batch had been rained on, in the box and the
> screws show lots of rust.
>
> some light orange, some dark maroon and obscuring hte threads.
>
> I picked out the one that the ball moved freely on with the hopes of
> using it. any ideas on the best way to remove light, medium and
> heavy rust ?
>
> I hope that I can just cut off the 8 inches of heavey rust and
> somehow polish the other 2 feet and use it for something. I do
> understand that any rust means loss of accuracy. I'm just hoping to
> have a little better thrust and accuracy than all thread.

A technique I've used to clean ballscrews and nuts that were not easy
to disassemble is to smear lots of grease on the screw, run it through
the nut, and then wipe off all the crud that the grease drags out of the
nut. I don't know if this will help in this situation, but if a bunch of rusty
gunk has been dragged into the nut, you might want to try this.

Jon