Re: leadscrew, acme screw, threaded rod, ballscrew

> When one mention leadscrew, does it refers to all kind of screws that
> are used to drive linear motion components (including acme screw,
> ball screw, threaded rod) or are they a special type of threaded rod
> made specially for linear motion drives?
>

"Leadscrew" could refer to either of the three, though I would not expect to see threaded rod on even a half decent CNC machine.

Acme rod is usually what you see on low/mid range machines. It comes in different levels of linear precision and it is fairly inexpensive. I think I paid $13 for a 6 foot length of 5/8x8. Anti backlash nuts are available for acme rod, but I'd saty away from the plastic nuts on a larger machine. They are quite expensive ($30 each). They didn;t last very long on my large table. I went to bronze nuts and have had no problem.

Ball screws are quite expensive but offer less turning resistance and more accuracy than acme rod. It all depends on how much you want to spend and how accurate your machine needs to be.

Ross