I extended an open rail laser engraver cutting machine. smaller size was 600mm x 800mm and everything worked good. Frame and gantry stayed square and rolled straight. The Y axis gantry is driven by a Nema 23 stepper and belt on each side. Yes I did replace the mother board, drives and steppers from the Nema17. Now that I extended the frame to 800mm x 1500mm. I used all the same stepper motor plates and drive gears on each side. I did replace roller wheels and drive belts. The problem seems that the right side of gantry moved uneven from the left side. My question is, would the gantry move straighter and more even if I only used one stepper motor and a drive rod across to the other end of the gantry?? Would one Nema 23 motor be enough to drive both sides
Hi Dwight, If it's not moving evenly you are loosing steps somewhere, you need to troubleshoot either friction, binding or loose pulley grub screws, or you could have a cable issue with the motor losing steps. What driver are you using? Is it a BlackBox? did you increase your current for the bigger motors? Cheers Gary
Hi Gary, Thanks for the reply. Power and cables is all good. I am using the Timothy Rothman Black and blue 2 mother board. The Black and blue 2 board does have adjustable drives for each stepper. Grub screws are all tight and rollers new. It is not a significant or even measurable differance from one side to the other. I just thought it might be more stable if there was a drive rod from one side to other rather than stepper motor and belt on each side.....
