I have been considering a rebuild of my MD machine and I have been musing on how to counter various problems. One of them is the crap falling on the leadscrew on the 'X' axis. It is under the bed of the machine. Would it not be better to mount the leadscrew above, so gravity helps keep the crap off it ?
If there were a sturdy gantry, you could hang everything off it like a travelling crane.

Is this a reasonable idea or am I too stoopid to see the flaws ?

I am also considering a design which pulls the Z axis as near as possible to the Y axis, with the stepper motor for the Z axis acting as a counterbalance to the spindle, to minimise twisting forces. This would mean a toothed belt in the drive chain of the Z leadscrew. What problems might there be here ?

I have already got a quote from Chai for the bits I need for rails and screws, and will probably start building in Late February, or when the bits get delivered. At the moment I am completely undecided how much of the original machine to use. It will probably be little more than the steppers and the spindle mount, though there might be some profile I can use.

I welcome your comments.

Cheers,

Rob