For a little background, I Initially built a Plasma table on an extreme budget and used some scavenged garage door screw drives for drive and scavenged linear rails and 1 motor for driving gantry and had wobble on the opposite end, so for a quick cheap fix, I added a shaft with chains on both sides to tie the 2 together. Bad design, noisy, wasted stepper effort, so on, but it worked, and it allowed me to make the parts I needed at 250 ipm max. Now that the table has made me some money, it is time to do it right and make a different "correct" drive setup.

If possible, I would like to keep my same electronics setup and add another low power stepper and simple driver to use on Z instead of the overkill 906oz and gecko 203V (and use it for 2nd Gantry Pusher) using the same power supply if possible, or add a second small PSU if needed, but my control box is almost filled up.

I am also wanting to add an air scribe engraver so I need to make sure I get a strong enough Z motor. I currently have a Sound Logic PC-2-Route Model M2 Breakout Board, I have 3 - 203v microstepping Gecko Drives pushing 3 - KL34H295-43-8A Nema 34 906oz/in steppers in Parallel Mode, powered by a AnTek PS-6N50R12 50vdc 12A supply. The drives and motors luckily I purchased seeing a bigger table as a possibility in the future.

Currently I have my Y axis Powered by 1 motor and using mechanical means of tying both sides of the gantry together to prevent direction change wobble. It has its flaws and i want to redesign and am debating using 1 motor on each side slaved to each other by means of rack and pinion 20 degree 20 pitch rack with 4:1 timing belt gearing and a 30 tooth spur (made in a little spring loaded box to press up against the rack) aiming for approx 500 - 600 ipm rapids. 600 should put me at about 573 rpms max and resolution of .00585 before microstepping, and .000585 after.

So, any ideas on adding another stepper and driver to that same 50v supply that would not cause low power issues, or another PSU to recommend also? If you have other questions or concerns, Im listening.

The other option that I have debated is running a shaft through the gantry, with the stepper and 4:1 gearing driving from one side of it, and dropping the movement to the drive racks using timing belts from both sides of the shafts, but just seems simpler to go the other direction.

Thanks in advance for your help