Ballscrew bearings

I know in an ideal world I'd have the space to mount (and the cash to
pay for) a pair of the premanufactured ballscrew end blocks. But I
don't, so I'm trying to come up with a smaller, simpler, cheaper
alternative that will still give acceptable performance on a lathe
crosslide, which doesn't need to move very fast.

Basically, one bearing assembly is going on each end of the screw.
The operator end bearing goes in a housing that screws into the
carriage so it is adjustable to preload the ballscrew.
For the bearings, I'm considering (at each end):

"Duplex angular contact ball bearing" (the $16 kind, not the $160x2
matched pair kind)

A normal ball bearing and a needle thrust bearing

A tapered roller bearing (if I can find one with a 1/2" bore)

Any suggestions?

(Fortunately all this mounts in brackets I'm making from scratch, and
the screw itself is cheap, so I can always redo it later if I'm
unhappy with the result.)

Chris

--
Christopher C. Stratton, stratton@...
Instrument Maker, Horn Player & Engineer
30 Griswold Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
http://www.mdc.net/~stratton
(617) 492-3358 home/shop