Was looking into alternatives to belt for a CNC Mill and came across gear rack and ball screw options. Does anyone have any experience with either of these? Suggestions or comments? http://www.cncrouterparts.com/pro-gear-rack-52-p-239.html http://ugracnc.com/BALL-SCREWS/View-all-products.html My goal was to eliminate the exposed belts near the cutting area on a modified OX while reducing the backlash.
It's all bit of a trade-off between one parameter and another. My preference is for ball-screws but, dependant on screw pitch, axis rapid travel can be quite slow if driving with stepper motors on a large machine. Just as an example; my ball-screw pitch is 5mm and they are direct driven with stepper motors - my maximum 100% reliable rapids are 4,500mm/min which equates to 900 rpm from the steppers. This is just fine for my machine table size but it would perhaps not suite a machine with a table size of 2,500mm x 1,250mm where rack and pinion systems are often employed. Tweakie.
Hmm....interesting. I was planning on making my machine 1500mm x 750mm perhaps it wouldn't be too bad.
