[Knut]

Has anyone used a belt and pinion drive like Carlson on their plotters? No loop over of the belt. It appears to be held on it's end and most likely glued to it's substrate along the way for stability.

Curious as to it's torque handling capabilites. Sounds like their head weighs 22 pounds, it operates very fast and cuts thick engineering materials. Can't find which thread had the locals reviewing their 'direct' chain drive experiences, but think it was this forum.

http://www.carlsondesign.com/#Plotter_Cutters

Thanks

[SteveS]

I was thinking about an approach very similar to the Carlson where the stepper was mounted to the gantry and the pinion worked with cut teeth on the frame. Y axis would be the same and Z still needing a ball screw. Teeth could be machined into the frame, a belt glued to the frame or additional part with teeth attached to the frame.

It would seem a big hurdle to get the alignment good enough over the entire travel that the pinion didn't wear excessively. If the alignment wasn't a problem, it would seem much easier to construct than with a ball screw or belt.