First I have to say it's annoying the only DIY section is in the woodworking section. I wasn't sure to post here or in the general metal workign section. Since I have a metal cutting machine I wasn't sure because people here might be more familiar with using the cheap DIY components but people in the metal section are going to have a better familiarity with the forces and stresses my machine will see.
So anyway yes I have a CNC machine I built myself. I cut mostly aluminum, do a little wood and plastic and have tested a couple small projects with stainless.
I used the common china no name ballscrews like this.


When I first got them they had a more than acceptable amount of backlash. A few months later and they have about .3mm backlash. I did a lot of searching and cannot find posts of others with the same issues or discussion on ways to tighten them up. This has me wondering if this is a common problem from regular use or if this is more due to the fact that I have stuffed the machine a few times and or the fact that I am pushing it hard cutting aluminum? Have others had this issue with these ballscrews?

Is there a more affordable screw that will hold up better?

My other thought was maybe to order another set of these and then using two nuts on one rail and making something that would allow a spring to keep them tensioned against each other in a jam nut fashion. I would hate to do this only to find out they quickly wore out fast enough to make it not worth the effort. Or seeing if there is a better bang for the buck option.