Hello everyone, A little while ago I used a drag knife on a lead screw driven cnc, worked perfectly. Now I'm looking to buy one of the WorkBees. Ideally the 1510 because we will be cutting very large pieces. However the 1510 (and only the 1510) is belt driven. I understand it's because lead screw that long are kindof hard to deal with. My concerns is with the torque of belt driven machines. Some of the leather we intend on cutting is quite dense. Does anyone have experience or references that I could consult to determine if belt driven would be enough? Thank you all!
My belt driven machine will push clamps out of the way without loosing steps, Use strong motors and good quality drivers that can deliver the current. Also if using gt3 belts learn to do dual belt or double belting, makes it basically a rack and pinion mostly eliminating the stretch. Use the smallest pully you can find, I found 16 tooth pulleys, about 20% more force than a more common 20 tooth. Rack and Pinion is great but can get expensive and will only be better if using a reduction pulley loop on the motor to pinion. Cheers Gary
There are also new plates, thrust bearings, etc. that put the screws in tension and you can now get 1540 mm screws. So, that may be an option, but you will have to ask about the substitution.