I figure I should start trying to lump all my work into one thread at some point. Might help someone in some way even though there are plenty of spectacular builds here on the zone already.
progress so far:


I have actually had to use this mill as a lathe to work on those encoders, damn ugly. but just accurate enough to get the job done.

After mulling over pro's and con's I did order some ball screws from Chai, asked him to please make sure the wrapping was stiff and extra bubble-wrap and also found out DHL refuses to ship anything marked as fragile. nice to know. His English is pretty darn good compared to anyone else I have dealt with in China. Total cost for doublenuts with the lengths I requested was $226

I figure some people are having a hard time with their ball screw designs ( I know I did a lot of thinking about mine) so I will post up my crude drawing (really I just copied a picture and relabeled all the dimensions) *!note! - do not use these designs as is! You will still need to come up with your own measurements.

I basically measured the length of travel that I wanted to maintain or extend and used that to adjust the length needed. Then you have to add in your machined ends overall length so if you look at mine you can actually deduct the l1-5 measurements from L and you will see what my adjusted travel is. This isn't a true travel since Y and Z have physical limitations caused by the column, saddle, ways, and way covers.
I did use jid2's drawings for inspiration since he was kind enough to post them up for another user. So you can see that I stuck with the 1/2" ends for the pulley's I did not use the same lengths however.
My threads for the locknuts I chose based on the need for two lock nuts on each axis (after much reading I discovered that those locknuts Chai provides sometimes want to move, although I have not seen another user complain of this since 2010 so two is probably an overkill safety measure). The l3 length is based on the width of each bearing + the oil seals + 5mm space between each bearing. I kept the overall length of l3 short by 2mm in order to ensure I could preload the AC bearings by the locknuts. The length of l1 is to ensure I have enough distance from the bearing mounts to clear the Xaxis ways on the Y saddle. and for simplicity sakes I kept that length for all 3.
Z was a completely different beast I went with a heavier ballscrew so as a result I had to order larger bearings so combine that with my previous explanation and you will realize why the l3 lengths are different. Now the overall length I needed probably did not need the floating end to be mounted but I figured cheap insurance.

I ordered some timing pulleys this morning from https://sdp-si.com/ however I will need to either modify my servo shafts (they are 14mm) or modify the two pulleys. Since I do not have a lathe, I will probably just use the same method of modification I did on the rear shafts for the encoders and on the Spindle motor. The old 14mm shafts are not easy to find pulleys for at least not in a dimension I wanted.
I decided on a 2.63:1 ratio and sticking with what they had in stock made it challenging I wound up getting pulleys with a GT2 5mm pitch, these will take a 15mm wide belt. I will order the belts when I am sure of the lengths needed. The critical thing about pulleys is one getting them to match up to your desired speeds as well as still providing clearance from the table. I plan on making my belt covers and bearing mounts look like an integral part of the table much like what jid2 did although he had a few snags with the pulleys diameters being a tad too large to clear properly.

well that's all for now. I am just waiting for more parts to show up at my door.