Thanks for the feedback Blackrat. I also like the simplicity of direct drive but quite a few people here believe belt-drive is the better route. I don't know how much better?

The table/base will be a very sturdy steel frame so the two sides are build separately but when bolted down they are connected via the base or am I maybe misunderstanding your question. I guess I can also weld them to the table but that won't be much stronger than having several bolts on each side of both or will it? I thought bolting them would make the alignment easier.

Quote Originally Posted by Blackrat View Post
belts aint gonna make it any smoother .... id run a coupler on the two axis' , so much easier and cheaper

im not quite with you on bolting it to a table ? you HAVE to join either sides , no ways you going to cut ally decently if they are seperate from each other, not to mention the nightmare of trying to get them parallel by clamping to a table