I'm guessing that you've already checked all surfaces on the ways for

damage and roughness, then ruled that out.



Yes, it sounds more like swarf between the ways and saddle. Try

flooding the ways with light machine oil, loosening the saddle gibs

and running the carriage end to end. It can float out the debris.

Otherwise, you might have to pull the carriage to clean out the swarf.


Yeah, I'm thinking of pulling off the carriage and doing a cleaning and inspection on that end. I only got the 20 year old machine recently, so it would be good to have a look in there anyway. There is play in the gibs.

I loosened the screws on the rack and re-tightened them. I saw no movement. Now the tight spot has disappeared, but the handwheel turns roughly all along the rack. Maybe I bent the gear shaft or the bearing behind the handwheel. I might try replacing the gears and bearing, but a good cleaning and adjustment of the saddle seems like the next logical step.

"Just having the half-nuts disengaged doesn't guarantee it is not
the leadscrew. Bend it just enough and it will bow to drag on one half
of the open half-nuts, thread crest to thread crest. Certainly worth
checking out."

Don, I checked the leadscrew with a dial indicator. Luckily it's still perfectly straight!