Ok so I am very new to the CNC world and I am hearing a little about “Back Lash”! I have tried to search this topic and found some video’s but I am still a bit Confused! What is it? Is it a major issue? How is the Longmill with regard to this?
Backlash essentially happens when there’s ‘slop’ in the movement of your machine. Imagine you’re driving an axis with a screw but the nut has been worn away so far that at this point the nut is probably rattling around on the screw, able to move slightly up or down the screw without necessarily rotating. When this is the case - not only do the movements of the machine start to become unreliable, but vibration that occurs during the cutting process can rattle the machine even more.
The way this is solved on the LongMill is essentially by having two nuts on the screw that are separated by a bolt. This means that as the nuts wear out and backlash is introduced, it can easily be eliminated again by adjusting the bolt between them. Pushing the two nuts further apart from one another means that although both of them are worn out, the combination of the two nut profiles mean that the nut assembly as a whole stays tight to the screw
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Thanks Chris! Now I get it!