Hello, I am in the process of building a C-beam machine and am considering switching my design from lead screws to direct drive rack & pinion for my X/Y axis'. A little detail about my design and use. I will have a 46"x48" cut area. I will be running the high torque Nema 23s. I plan to cut wood, plastics and aluminum. I have not determined my electronics yet but most likely will go with the Blackbox. Most likely will be another post on that subject soon. I am looking at purchasing the Internal Gear Rack system from MakerStore.cc. My question is which gears should I use for my setup? They have 3 options (16/20/32 Tooth). Also if you don't mind me throwing another related question in. What pitch should I use on for my lead/ball screw on the Z axis?
Low tooth = low speed and high torque. High tooth = high speed and low torque. Choose what is more important to you. BTW, same thing goes for the pitch.
Would love to hear what others that have rack and pinion setups have learned about what works best for different applications. I would assume I would want higher torque for harder applications like aluminum and higher speed for softer applications like wood. Would something in the middle be a good balance? Or is it best to just go with more torque and sacrifice speed?
R'n'P drive motors are almost always on a sprung swivel system; you can build enough adjustability into the system to use multiple different pinion diameters, each with its own calculated steps/mm value. Here's a good example from just last year (the Builds tab is your friend, look through what already exists!): Router / plasma cutting table ( Rack and pinion )
