Eliminating Backlash, Part 1:

Basics
If you're looking over this page, I'll assume you wonder why you should
eliminate backlash (or how much can your stand), you want to build a CNC
machine from scratch, or you are converting a manual machine that has
measurable backlash. If you have a machine already converted that has the
"good" parts (like ballscrews), and still have too much backlash, try Part 2 for
ideas to solve your problem.

What is Backlash?

According to the CNC Dictionary, backlash is any kind of unexpected play in

an axis due to clearance or looseness of mechanical parts. When the axis is
commanded to move, the drive motor may turn briefly before movement
begins. That delay is the backlash.

Backlash has a variety of causes. The most common is play between the
leadscrew threads and those of the nut. ACME screws can have considerable
backlash of this kind, while ballscrews may have almost none. Another
source is any tendency for the screw to move axial in the bearings that hold it,
or any other such play in the system. Precision angular contact bearings with
preload are often used to combat this tendency. Gears, belts, and chains can
all introduce backlash into a mechanical system. Even loose fasteners or flex
in the mounting plates or chassis can be a source of backlash.

Why Eliminate Backlash?

Backlash is a subject that comes up frequently in CNC machine discussions,

and it seems machine makers are willing to go to no end of trouble and
expense to eliminate backlash. Why is it considered so bothersome?

There are several reasons. First, CNC machines are largely blind and even
most closed loop systems lack much ability to sense that the axis hasn't
moved even though the motor has. A system that has both encoders on the
shafts and some form of linear encoder may be able to sense the axis hasn't
moved, but even a machine that "knows" the backlash is there suffers from
the other problems.
A second issue for backlash can occur while climb milling. Climb milling is
often preferred to conventional milling because it produces a better surface
finish and places less stress on the machine and cutter. However, if an excess
of backlash is present, the action of the cutter can operate to pull the
workpiece suddenly into the cutter by a distance equal to the backlash. At the
very least this is counterproductive to surface finish and at the worst, it can
result in a broken cutter, scrapped workpiece, or even injury to the operator
from flying debris.The benefits of climb milling are so great that even some of
the later manual milling machines at the high end came with ballscrews or
"backlash eliminators" just so climb milling could be practiced on these
machines. You can still buy retrofit kits today to add ballscrews to say a
Bridgeport mill for this purpose. If you don't plan to CNC the machine, make
sure your ballscrew installation is properly spec'd to avoid "back driving". This
is where the friction on the ballscrew is so low that it won't hold the table in
place against the cutting forces. It's largely a matter of specifying the right lead
for the ballscrew or in some cases have a friction mechanism on the axis that
can be engaged and disengaged as needed.

The last issue is one of smooth continuous machining when direction is

reversed. It's possible for a CNC machine to do things a manual operator
spinning the handwheels could never do, like cutting a smooth circle. The
operator needs a rotary table to do this, but a CNC machine can smoothly
operate two axes precisely enough to generate a circle, unless there is
backlash. It turns out a circle forces several changes of direction throughout
the course of the cut. An example of what such a cut looks like when there is
backlash:
Backlash "Ears": 1" diameter circle, 0.020" backlash on both X and Y axes.

The little kicked out "ears" happen at each point an axis changes direction on
the circle. You can imagine also that when a part is being profiled, the spindle
is moving back and forth and up and down to follow the contours of the part.
Every time the spindle goes down and then shifts back up, that is a reverse of
direction. Backlash is going to cause inaccuracy or dwell marks at those
points where the direction is reversed.
As a matter of fact, cutting circles is an acid test for a mill. Try one and see
how it turns out to get a rough idea how your backlash is doing as well as a
number of other factors.

It's worth noting that lathes have it a lot easier than mills where backlash is
concerned. There is no equivalent of climb milling on a lathe, and a reversal of
direction need not occur smoothly while cutting as often.

Lastly, the CAM software you'd like to use to generate your g-codes assumes
your machine has no backlash. It doesn't produce code that operates the
machine the way a manual machinist sensitive to avoiding backlash problems
would.

Okay, hopefully we've made a believer out of you that you want to get rid of
backlash. BTW, for some applications, such as plasma cutting, the resolution
needed may be so low that quite a lot of backlash is acceptible. Try to keep
that in perspective as well.

What About Backlash Compensation?

When a manual machinist is faced with backlash, he naturally follows a

routine that for the most part allows him to ignore it. That routine involves
taking up the slack (or backlash) on the handwheels before beginning to cut.
Machine control software such as Mach 3 can automatically follow the same
routines for backlash. It isn't quite as good as the operator, because it lacks
his "feel" of exactly when the lash is gone and instead relies on being told how
much backlash is present. It's very hard to get that exactly right and it may
change as your leadscrew wears or your machine needs adjustment (for
example the gibs need adjusting). Remember also the problems with climb
milling and reversing direction. Our manual machinist probably avoids both
because he knows he'll get into trouble. We're not getting full value out of our
CNC machine if we force it to avoid climb milling, cutting circles, or the host of
other operations that involve changes of direction during a cut.

So, backlash compensation is a weak bandaid for the problem. It's better than
nothing, and may tide you over until you break out the checkbook and fix your
backlash, but it isn't something you'd probably like to live with long term. If
your machine is a lathe, you may be able to live with just backlash
compensation.

How Do I Measure the Backlash in My Machine?

How do I know how much backlash I have? A DRO is handy if you have one,
because it will directly measure how far the axis really moved. Failing that, put
a dial indicator in the spindle. Set it up to read against a 1-2-3 block or other
flat reference, put a little tension on it with the handwheel (or manually jogging
a CNC machine) to get a reading, and zero the indicator. Now move the axis
in the direction that takes the tension off the indicator a distance that is greater
than any possible backlash and read that off the handwheel. Turn the
handwheel in the opposite direction exactly the distance you read off from the
first movement. Check your dial indicator. The amount it did not get back to
zero is your backlash.

Sources of Backlash in Conventional Machines

In all likelihood, the majority of your backlash is coming from your leadscrew
and associated nut. Most manual machines will use an ACME leadscrew.
Because of the nature of these screws, if the nut is made tight enough to
eliminate the backlash, it introduces too much friction and the screw becomes
impossibly hard to turn. In addition, the nut is often made of a material that
wears more rapidly than the screw, so that it may be replaced more cheaply
than replacing the leadscrew itself. Such nuts often have an adjustment to
take out some of the excess backlash as they wear. When they don't or when
they're not adjusted properly, or when all the adjustment is used up on an old
heavily used machine, you get lots of backlash. It is not unusual to see
backlash of 0.005" on a good quality manual machine with ACME screws, and
that figure can easily deteriorate to 0.025" or worse on a badly worn machine.

There are other sources too, such as the gibs or the mounting of the nut or
screw. There can be play in how a handwheel or motor is attached to the shaft
as well. Since the leadscrew is the biggest source of trouble, we'll consider
leadscrew alternatives first.

The "Good Parts": Leadscrew Alternatives

The most commonly discussed alternative to a conventional ACME leadscrew

for CNC use is a ballscrew. Ballscrews are typically intended for CNC work,
and so are made to minimize backlash. Because they turn with a lot less
friction than an ACME screw, they can be built to much tighter tolerances.
Ballscrew come in rolled and ground flavors, with the latter being more precise
and more backlash free. A decent rolled ballscrew will deliver 0.003" backlash
while a poorly made one has perhaps 0.010". A ground screw ought to be no
more than 0.001" and probably should be less. There are ways to reduce this
further having to do with the nuts and preloading of oversized balls, which I'll
talk about below.

Besides ground versus rolled, ballscrews come in different accuracy grades

that you should be aware of:

C0 - 3um or 0.0001" per 300 mm / 12"

C3 - 7um or 0.00027" per 300 mm / 12"

C5 - 14um or 0.0005" per 300 mm / 12"

This refers to how close the position will be after the screw has turned through
12" of motion. Note that in this area, there are ACME screws available that are
every bit as accurate, so the ballscrew has no special advantage here.
Another thing to be aware of is that a lot of machine control software,
including Mach 3, has a feature known as "ballscrew mapping". This feature
lets you measure the true position reached at various points along the
ballscrew and use it to compensate for errors in the ballscrew. This function
works very well, and should be taken advantage of if you have the means to
accurately measure the deviations. This alone is a good reason to install
an inexpensive DRO at least temporarily on your machine until you can get
the compensation tables calibrated.

It is also interesting to note that this error can vary as the temperature
changes based on the room the machine is in and how hard its working.
Companies such as Heidenhain sell special controls based on linear scales
(i.e. scales like a DRO uses) that dynamically compensate for such errors on
very high accuracy machines. It's quite interesting to read their technical
articles about this and gain an understanding of how much error can accrue
from such factors as temperature variations. The effects of a fully warmed up
machine over the full length of the ballscrew was about 0.004", which is
significant to many applications.

There are some alternatives to ballscrews that I won't discuss here. They're
not seen very often, and you can research them on the web if you like.

Nuts, Nuts, and more Nuts

Lots to know about nuts and backlash. First, you can get nuts made to reduce
the backlash of an ACME screw? Wait a minute, you say, we just spent all
that time hearing you can't do that without getting too much friction, what
gives? Well, it turns out that if you make the nut from Delrin or similar low
friction material, you can pretty well get rid of a lot of the normal ACME
backlash and things work well for a time and with limited cutting forces. I feel
this is a good solution of something like a plasma or router table, but I'm
skeptical about how well it would work if you need high cutting forces, for
example, to cut metal. In addition, such nuts will wear out rapidly and need to
be protected from chips and other contamination.

Secondly, one can arrange a scheme whereby there are two nuts with a
spring (such as a Belleville Washer) between them to preload the backlash
out of the system. This works for ballscrews, and it also works for ACME
screws, albeit with a lot more friction. This is normal approach to eliminate
backlash with ground ballscrews. It adds a fair amount to the cost, but is worth
it.

The last trick is to load the ballscrew with some oversize balls to take out the
slop. This is the normal approach to fine tune a ground ballscrew, and it will
work to an extent with rolled screws, but there is a problem with the latter.
Since rolled screws are not made to the same degree of precision as ground,
too much preloading with oversized balls can lead to binding. The grooves are
simply not laid out precisely enough to use this method to eliminate all the
backlash.

Using these techniques carefully, one should be able to get the backlash in
the ballscrew itself down to the tenths level (0.0001" to 0.0005") or perhaps
less with a very high quality screw.

Mounting the Leadscrew and Nut Properly: Angular Contact What? They
Cost What?!??

Now you've get a ballscrew with either double nuts or preloaded properly with
oversized balls. The next step is to ensure the ballscrew is mounted properly.
Unfortunately, this is neither an easy, nor particularly inexpensive thing to do.
By design, ballscrews are intended to be secured at their driven end by a pair
of angular contact bearings. The other end of the screw is either left to float
free in some designs, or secured by a bearing in such a way that if the screw
expands or contracts due to heat, it has the freedom to do so at this end. The
two angular contact bearings are typically installed in a preloaded
configuration which holds the ballscrew firmly and prevents any motion along
the screws axis, but still lets the screw turn freely when driven. There is a lot
to know to propely design and build a ballscrew mounting of this type!
First thing is to get familiar with the bearing maker's literature on angular
contact bearings:

Barden

Timken

NSK

FAG

It's really not all that painful to read through these documents, and there is a
lot of good interesting information there. If you learn nothing else, be sure to
study the standard nomenclature used to identify these bearings. If you're
going out fishing on eBay or the Internet to find them, you've got to know how
to identify what you're looking for or looking at.

Now given those resources, we can start to explore some of the issues, or at
least some rules of thumb that can be used in this area. First, how does the
double bearing mounting look and work? Here's a basic schematic
representation:
 Mounting a Ballscrew with 2 Angular Contact Bearings...

Note the crossed lines. These are the contact angles for the angular contact
bearings. Because they are opposed, this provides the resistance to back and
forth motion along the axis of the ballscrew. In addition, the bearings are
preloaded to take out any internal slop. The preload is provided by the spacer
between the bearings, the shoulder of the ballscrew, and the lock nut that is
threaded on the end of the ballscrew and bears against the other end of the
bearing pack. The ballscrew shoulder and locknut bear on the inner races of
the bearing, while the mounting block and cover bear on the outer races. The
torque on that nut establishes the preload, and all of these surfaces need to
be finished with some fair precision if the end result is to work precisely. The
cover is simply holding the bearing assembly in place with respect to the
machine, but it does need to be tight with respect to the outer races, so some
shimming or spacers may be required.

In this case I have shown the two bearings mounted in the DF, or duplex face
to face configuration. The pressures against axial movement are outward, and
you can see the bearing balls are supported in that way. You can reverse both
bearings to create a DB, or duplex back to back configuration. This still works,
and in fact, the bearings will be even stronger at fighting axial movement. The
advantage of the DF configuration is that the assembly can tolerate
misalignment a lot better, so this is the recommended configuration in this
application.

Okay, let's assume you've carefully perused the bearing literature, you
understand the way they're to be employed, how do you select the best
bearings for your application? There are a number of selection parameters to
consider:

You're going to want a bore that works with your

ballscrew. In all likelihood, you may have to turn and
thread the end of the ballscrew. You want as precise a
fit as possible for best accuracy. The larger the bearing,
Bore Size
the stronger it is likely to be as well, though you can
check the specs to see for sure. You can't run the
ballscrew inside a sleeve to make it fit a bearing that's
too large and hope for any accuracy, however.
Remember the crossed lines above. The greater the
Contact angle, the stiffer and better the bearings will be. 15
Angle degrees is the low end of the scale, 60 degrees is the
high end of the scale.
More is better. You shouldn't exceed the recommended
preload of the bearing, but bearings are made to
different preload specs. Get the ones with more preload
for this application. It is amazing how much preload can
be beneficial in eliminating as much backlash as
possible. Think 500 lbs and up if you really want to
control backlash to minute levels. A typical 15 degree
contact angle bearing with high preload might only
Preload tolerate up to 125 lbs of preload.

Alternatives:

You can concievably stack 4 bearings instead of 2 in

order to do better, but I confess I do not know much
about this higher level of vodoo!

In addition, while I said not to exceed the preload, if

you have a cheap set of bearings (not a $1000 set!), you
 might experiment with creeping up on more preload.
The downside is that it is going to introduce friction and
wear that at some stage may be self defeating.
The bearing is going to have some slop in it. The higher
the accuracy rating, the less there will be. Here is the
secret decoder ring:

Bore Radial
DIN JIS ABEC Width Application
Diameter Runout
Class
P0 1 (0.00012) 0.00012
0
Class
P6 3 (0.00008) 0.00012 0.00008
6
Class Machine
P5 5 (0.00008) 0.00008 0.00006
5 Tools
Machine
Quality, P4
Class
7 (0.00006) 0.00004 0.00003 Tools,
Accuracy, 4
Spindles
and Class High Speed
Tolerances P2 2 9 (0.00004) 0.00002 0.00002
Spindles

There is at least one highly regarded low end CNC mill

being sold today that uses ABEC3 bearings to mount
the ballscrews. OTOH, if you want the best, ABEC 7 is
the way to go. Note how small the actual differences are
between these two grades: 0.00008" runout vs 0.00003"
runout. Half a ten thousandth! I can see why for many
applications the ABEC 3 works well enough. You need
to decide what will be good enough for you, as this
particular specification drives up bearing prices faster
than anything else. It's easy to pay $1000 or more for a
set of ABEC 7 bearings.
If your bearing manufacturer offers this number, you've
Axial Load got the diving rod right there. This is the measurement
Rating of what it takes to cause axial motion with the bearing.
You want the biggest honking axial load you can get!

Understanding Angular Contact Bearings Specifications for Ballscrew Applications

When it comes to mounting these little jewels, keep in mind that you probably
want ground spacers between the two bearings and the preload nut probably
wants to be ground as well. All that can be done for you by a qualified shop, or
in some cases you can purchase the parts already ground. Try to buy your
bearings as a matched pair (they'll say "DUL" or "DUH" in the bearing name)
and they won't need the spacer between them either. As mentioned before,
you may need to shim or spacer the bearings in the mounting block to make
sure they're properly locked in there on the outer races. You will also want
some form of dust seal to keep the junk out of your bearings. Here is an
exploded view of a professional ballscrew bearing block:

Note that the spacers shown here are not for preload, they simply allow more
bearings to be mounted in the block for even greater stiffness, or different
spacers would allow some bearing substitutions. Also note that this block has
the bearings mounting in DB configuration, rather than DF.

I suspect when you first start shopping for these bearings, particularly if you
set out looking for ABEC-7's, your initial reaction is going to be one of
discouragement. Great bearings are really expensive. It's easy to spend
$1000 without hardly getting started. Your application may justify it, but most
don't. Here's a couple of less expensive compromise bearings I came across
that are worth looking at:

7204CTDULP4 : $200 for a duplex pair by Nachi (good name) that can be run
in DF config, and are ABEC-7's. The downside? There's only a 15 degree
contact angle and the preload is light. Still, not a bad starting point.

7204 : $200 too much? How about $24 each for ABEC3's? The downsides--
they're not ABEC-7's and they're not a matched duplex pair. OTOH, they have
a better contact angle at 40 degrees. Can't tell from this what the preload spec
might be, which is bad. Note that what they're calling it, just "7204", is an
incomplete desription by bearing nomenclature standards. It would be like
calling a person "Frank". If you know there person well, you know which
Frank, but in this case "7204" only tells us the size of the bearing. There's a lot
we don't know about these bearings, and most of it is probably to the
detriment of performance. You don't want to just go ask for a "7204". Read the
information above and learn how to fully specify your bearing if you want the
best performance.

What if you do want the all the performance possible? Try to find some
bearings such as "7204A5TYDUHP4". They'll have a higher contact angle and
preload than the "7204CTDULP4" bearings I mentioned, which as we've
discussed makes it a better choice. The real expensive bearings, the ones
designed for ballscrew applications on machine tools and used by pros, would
be something like "20TAC47BDF". That nomenclature is a little different, but
you can find them out there in the bearing catalogs. They won't be cheap, but
they have a huge contact angle, 500 lbs of preload, and they are ABEC-7's.
Don't expect to find the 20TAC's sitting in an eBay auction or expect to buy
them from a skate bearing supplier. You might get lucky, but it's unlikely in the
extreme. Get ready for some sticker shock on the price, but if they're what you
need for ultimate performance, that's what it takes. Many bearing
manufacturers keep these types of bearings in a separate "precision" or
"machine tool" bearing catalog. Be sure to sniff around their web sites for
those catalogs to see what these bearings are and to learn more about how to
employ them in this sort of application.

There are endless combinations and trade offs. Shop carefully. Your mileage
may vary, and by all accounts, you do get what you pay for!

The other end of the ballscrew can be left unsupported, and indeed has been
in at least one CNC mill out there, but this limits the speed you can drive the
ballscrew without whipping. In this case, support it with a normal deep groove
ball bearing such as you would use on an electric motor shaft. It's not
providing precision, it's just providing support and the leeway for the ballscrew
to expand and contract axially with temperature changes.

I Want to Use Cheaper Bearings Instead of Matched Duplex Pairs

This can be done. The matched pairs have simply had either the inner or
outer race ground so there is a differential size between the inners and outers
and preload can be had by compressing the shorter of the two until the races
from the two bearings are in contact. One can achieve the same effect by
using spacers on one or the other race (but not both!) to create that differential
instead of grinding. Doing this is going to require a certain amount of skill and
perhaps a lot of trial and error.

The first step is to measure the bearing race deflection with a given amount of
preload. Use the amount recommended by the bearing manufacturer for these
bearings. This given amount can be placed on the bearings using weights.
Measure how much the races deflect with that amount of weight, and then
make yourself a spacer with the same thickness.

For a DB configuration (stiffest configuration, but most alignment sensitive),

you will be shimming the outer bearing rings. For a DF configuration (less stiff,
but more tolerant of shaft misalignment), you will shim the inner bearing rings.

A variety of things can be used to make the bearing spacers, but they need to
be very flat, and they will be very thin. In a pinch, aluminum foil could be used,
but you'll need to carefully cut it to the correct size to serve. A more elegant
solution is to draw up the appropriate washer shape in your 2D CAD program,
send it to a laser cutting house, and have them cut washers out of shim stock.
You'll want to get some in 0.010", some 0.020" and some 0.002 and 0.005's.
Be sure to consult your bearing handbook to make sure the washers are sized
properly before you have them made up.

A note of warning: don't try to set preload by a torque wrench on the nut
you're tightening or some sort of calculation on the force that nut delivers! It is
almost impossible to get it right. A lot of the force is eaten up as friction, and
you will not have enough data to do proper preloading this way. The required
information is held closely by the bearing manufacturers. When properly
installed, tightening that nut will just tighten down the races on the shoulders
and spacers. The nut will come to a stop when things are tight and you should
not over tighten further.
A second warning: don't think you can get the preload right by feel. It is very
easy to damage your bearings this way!

You really do have to rig up a test rig with weights and measure deflection!

You should also make sure the bearings are not fit too tightly on the shaft or in
the bearing block. A hand slip fit is all you need! Too tight a fit can damage the
bearings or make it impossible to accurately set preload.

For more thoughts and details on angular contact bearings, check out my mill
belt drive spindle project page.

Align the High Spots When Installing the Bearings!

I want to stop here and mention an important point, particularly if you are
about to disassemble a ballscrew mounting assembly. Be sure to record the
orientation of the bearings relative to the housing so you can put them back
exactly as you found them. When assembling a new bearing system for the
first time, most of these bearings have the high spot marked on the bearing.
Align the high spots for the two bearings. This ensures that the ballscrews
moves eccentrically in the same direction as the two bearings rotate, rather
than wobbling, and will result in better performance.

Okay, that's the basics. I will assume at this stage you have a good ballscrew,
proper nut to minimize backlash (or preloaded oversized balls), and a good
mounting scheme using high quality angular contact bearings. I would hope
your backlash is measuring considerably less than it had been before all those
new goodies got installed. Hopefully its under 0.005". The next section
discussed refinements to further reduce backlash.