Partial rebuild

And so the change begins. 

The old x rails (two pieces of wood with bits of curtain rail profile attached) are removed from my old machine and the z-axis assembly extracted. 

Although the old x-axis only used 4 skate wheels, I had added another two wheels to reduce wobble with moderate effect. 

The old and new x-axis rails/bearings can  be seen in the following photo:

The two wooden bars had adjusting screws that allowed me to tweak the alignment:

The trick now is to get the new rails attached to the x-bridge and the linear bearing blocks to the z-axis assembly with the rails being perfectly parallel so that nothing binds. 

The x-bridge is stripped clear ready for the operation:

The new blocks are fitted to the back of the z assembly and ready to put back on the bridge, rails placed and attached to the bridge. 

It looks good but doesn't slide as smoothly as I had hoped. Not too bad, maybe it will settle and loosen after a few runs. 

Now for the attachment to the x drive. I have a simple anti backlash construction. The main bit of wood (on the right) has a T screw in it and this piece of wood will be attached to the z assembly. On the left hand side a second strip of wood with T but is also fitted to the threaded rod and wound around until it is close to but not quite touching the main piece of wood. Two bolts then attach the two together and allow me to squeeze these slightly so that the backlash is eliminated but the threaded rod can still rotate. 

Now add the top of the Z-assembly that connects to the x drive. 

...and now.... Power it up!