Hi guys, after virtually years of wanting to have a fourth axis on my cnc router I finally got the part I needed the most, a small harmonic drive. It wasn't my first one, but the first one was way too big for my table, an ebay purchase error



Anyway, after thinking about the design I started drawing in cad what I think it should have to work properly, here are the renders so I can show my current stage, my main doubt is if I'm overengineering the thing, keeping in mind that it will be used for wood mostly and every now and then to do super light machining on aluminum or brass:




What you see from right to left is: Nema 23 motor>Mounting of motor>4th axis enclosure half>size 14 harmonic drive>shaft>two preload nuts>two angular bearings>enclosure other half.


First question, for the intended use, are the angular bearings really needed? They are expensive...

Thanks for looking, hopefully at the end of this thread I can show a fully finished and working unit.


Pablo