HiYa BigPete,
There is an old adage amongst racers that goes " Speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?" The point is Money will guide the recommendations greatly. EMC is free, whereas Mach3 is pretty much turnkey. Servos are fastest most accurate, most expensive, steppers can lose steps, many levels of "suitability", ditto for controllors. Gecko seems to be the most recommended choice in here, as for motors I would go with their recommendation. Ballscrews again most accurate most expensive, acme screw cheap, R&P in between, both have lash issues & mediocre accuracy without encoders, though probably good enough for wood or weld fabricators. For super light duty, light timing belt works well, heavier timing belt should work in clean environment, chain works for some dirty type environments I. E. plasma cutters . . I wouldn't count on it's accuracy, simply because chain stretches. to that end I imagine so will timing belt.
I hope something in my rant was helpful.
JS
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