Am I missing something but, isn't it possible to locate the motor between the two lead screws and fit two pulleys to the motor to drive two belts?
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That's tricky with a Nema 23/24 motor since the shaft is not long enough to accomodate two pulleys for 15mm wide belts. You could bolt two pulleys together, so one would overhang on the shaft, but that might be a bit much force for the motor bearings. Adding an extra bearing would sort that, but if you don't have access to a lathe or milling machine that gets tricky.
You are quite correct you could do that in a simillar way as stated in another post and have a V arrangement to cover tensioning, however i havnt mentioned it before but i have such a limited working space that there is only just enough room below the bed for the belt .. But thanks anyhow...hope that makes things a little clearer..
Rick
Bore 'em out then fix 'em on a common sleeve. The tension on the two belts would tend to cancel out if the thrusts are arranged to be reasonably opposite. The belts don't necessarily need to be the same length so the motor need not be centrally between the leadscrews.
Just my two-penny-worth.
If you look I said any belt that "suits" and obviously too small giving wrong tooth engagement wouldn't suit would it.?
Yes it is and that's how I did it first time but found it hard to get even tension on each belt.! It also means having the screws offset or one machined longer or like in my case where I hadn't allowed for this when machined due to originally going to use slaved motors screw extensions needed making.
The way I have it now isn't pretty but it works very very good and super reliable and easy to swap ratios.!