Hey, all! I normally just listen to the wisdom spouted by all you experts (the status of which I aspire to reach someday!). I built my own gantry-style router running LCNC. Each side of the gantry is driven by it's own stepper and Acme screw. HOWEVER, to avoid racking, I have both sides locked in alignment via a toothed drive belt connecting the two sides.
This was an evolution since, initially, the friction of the drive mechanism (including the tensioned drive belt and associated tensioner) limited my gantry's speed too much when driven by a single stepper. I couldn't go to a larger stepper because the current draw on my stepper was pushing the limit imposed by my drivers. I'm on a tight budget, so replacing the driver and stepper with higher current units was viewed with considerable distaste. I had a total of 4 stepper drivers available and only 3 in use - the fourth was just setting there and intended for a spare if I lost a driver. Instead, I ordered another stepper of the same model as the original, set up LCNC to use the same signal for the new driver as the original stepper on the gantry, and set each stepper to drive it's own side of the gantry. I decided NOT to remove the belt, since I'm a "belt & suspenders" type of guy! By default, the result is a gantry that never racks. Just a FWIW comment! Dennis ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Managing the Performance of Cloud-Based Applications Take advantage of what the Cloud has to offer - Avoid Common Pitfalls. Read the Whitepaper. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=121054471&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
