Having finished all the parts I could for the Z without further measurements, I dismantled the entire machine again so I can finish lapping the ways and to figure out how to install the Z screw. Lapping is slow work. Its not so much the lapping bit as the cleaning between grits. It took two days, a small amount of diesel, three entire rolls of paper towel and copious beverages to lubricate the operator to get this done.
The hole at the top end of the column needed to be enlarged a wee bit to get the flange of the ball-screw to fit. The tools of choice: a round file and an air grinder with an hss bur bit. I also took the time to clean up the inside of the column casting which had some pretty nasty, errr, crap for want of a better word, that could potentially interfere with the ball-nut.
Measuring up the Z slide to design the ball-nut mount. I'm using a dial indicator again to measure the layout of the taper pins and the central mounting hole so that I can match up the new ball-nut mount. Zero the dial against a reference, zero the height gauge, move the indicator down to what needs to be measured. Using the indicator makes it far easier to find the maximum or minimum of a circular part.
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