[CAMCRASH]

noob here, as you will probably see

I am attemping to design a 42 x 42 x 12 gantry style router
the rail system for both long axis will be mounted on the top of the machine

Is it possible to have dual lead screws on a single axis with independent stepper motors
If so what would I use or how would I maintain synchronization between the motors?
I am trying to stay away from is a complex pulley & belt system

Also will a control like Mach3 be capable of running a system like this?

I have attached a basic mock-up of the frame & rail system

any help or possible resources would be greatly appreciated

Motors I plan on using will be bipolar Nema 34 or 42

[ger21]

Mach3 has an option to slave the two motors together. Just takes a few clicks of the mouse.

[Oldmanandhistoy]

Hi,

In my experience there is no reason not to use the dual stepper/lead screw method. I used two stepper motors and two drives which used the same pins from the parallel port for their step and direction signals without problem. I use Turbocnc as my software which has no slaving option. If you have or are going to use Mach3 then I would wire the drives from separate pins to take advantage of slaving. Mach3 also allows the two screws to be homed independently which allows you to re square the axis if steps were lost.

One of the most important considerations is stepper motor sizing as under powered motors may loose steps or even worse one may stall with obvious consequences.

John