Mill/Turn lathe servo driven spindle drive?

Hi All,

I very much like the concept of the SwissMak and I'm interested in making a slightly larger and more robust version of it.

My main concern is that I would like to use a large servo motor to drive the spindle but I have doubts that a timing belt would be an acceptable in terms of holding the spindle rigidly enough for milling operations. I don't want to use an inline direct drive because that would mean I could not put long stock in the chuck. I guess an option is an anti backlash split gear. Any thoughts on what may be a suitable means of driving the spindle?

Thanks
Splint

A belt drive in combination with a disk brake would work well. That's what my lathe has.