hey guys, I was wondering if it will be good enough to use a belt driven setup for my X rails? I came up with a quick drawing of what I am thinking and how my CNC design will look from the side. My rails are going to be 54" long and to get a ballscrew for that length it's gonna be costly I was checking out the Acme Rods and found some one here in FL that sells them and those arent bad but I heard that they sometimes stall the stepper motors? and aren't as precise. I thought that pretty strong belt with pullys on both ends would be more "precise" and I think it might be cheaper. not sure, was also wonderign if any of ya had some good links on belts and pullys. I found a Robotic website that had a 1" x 90" belt for some thing like $98 and then the pullys are like $15 a peice and I was thinking, that is almost as much as a Ballscrew! but if there are cheaper belts I would check into them.
My drawing.... the belt and Pullys would go directly in the middle of the table and then I will have a support bar connecting the two bearing cars and then I will strap the belt onto that bar and then I will get my back and forward motion.
Note: this is a quick CAD drawing!
-Dan