I am building a single axis transport with either a ball screw or lead screw. It will probably be driven by a stepper motor. It would be have limit switches on each end for over travel. What is the best approach (i.e. low cost but reliable) to a have a human interface without a pc. The interface would control motor on/off and motor speed. The motor would just need to cause travel to each end of the screw. I don't want to have a pc interface but rather switches and or pots.
If all you wanted to do was to drive it from one end to the other, then I would use a single pushbutton. When you press that button the Arduino reads which endstop is pressed and drives that transport away from that endstop until the other endstop is activated. You could also have a potentiometer to allow you to adjust speed.
For any more detailed help you're going to need to give us more details though.
Hi,
Welcome to the forum.
Please read the first post in any forum entitled how to use this forum.
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php/topic,148850.0.html
Can you tell us your electronics, programming, Arduino, hardware experience?
Do you wish to program any stops or speed during the transition fro one end to the other.
Thanks.. Tom... 
AFAIK a ball-screw is just a mechanically efficient lead-screw. The programming would be the same whichever is used.
These links may help
Stepper Motor Basics
Simple Stepper Code
...R