Someone else brought this up but there was not much comment on this issue.

Most rack and pinion drive systems on 4 foot x 4 foot tables use a 3 to 1 reduction for the stepper to rack. I copied the others and built a similar reduction system for my x axis. Works fine.

Yesterday I connected the stepper on my y axis direct to the rack. Less than 1 to 1 ratio. Seems to work fine and moves extremely quick. I tuned the motors in mach2 for about 200 inch per minute. Tried to hold the y axis back with my hand and the motor has plenty of power.

A stepper motor power curve has more torque at lower speeds so the slower the steppers turn the more happy they are.

I am puzzled. Is there any reason that I cannot run the steppers direct to the rack?

JR

270 oz steppers, 50 pound bridge, plasma table 4 by 4, gecko drives, mach2