Using belts for large format machines

[scott88]

Thanks Jazz, I think ballscrews is the answer then.

This might give me a reason to buy a lathe, so I can machine some driven ballnut housings 😁

I understand what you're saying about building a smaller one first, but I'd have no use for it, so to me it'd be a costly affair. I'm going to get my design fully planned out before I even consider buying anything.

[JAZZCNC]

I understand what you're saying about building a smaller one first, but I'd have no use for it, so to me it'd be a costly affair. I'm going to get my design fully planned out before I even consider buying anything.

Build it right and you'll make money when you sell it. What you learn will be priceless for building a large machine and you'll also learn how to actually use the control etc so when you do build a larger machine your cutting meaningful parts straight from the get -go.

The scale up in Size really does need more attention to detail and techniques which you need to learn before attempting to build if you want a good machine. ie: Mister Mills failing with belts on a large machine.!!. . . Building a smaller machine with them first might have shown him some of the pitfalls and hopefully tipped him off it wasn't the best choice for a large build.

Yes, you are doing the correct thing by doing the research for whats required but you can read as many threads as you like none of them can prepare you fully for the build process and what's required and that's on a small/med size, large machines magnify what's required and throws in a few curve balls of its own which can be disastrous if you don't catch them first.! . . . Which you probably won't because your experience level is Zero and often these things are not realized until well into the build anyway, by which time you have sunk plenty of money into it. This is why you don't see so many complete large build threads, plenty of new builders try but often fail.

So building a smaller machine will actually save you money long term and if done right you'll sell it for more money than it took to build which you can put into a better large machine.
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