where to start?

[JAZZCNC]

I saw a very nice belt driven home build on youtube and I'm very tempted to use this on the X & Y axis, Im presuming that due to the size of my machine I would need two motors on the Y axis as apposed to just one on the machine I saw as it was much smaller?

Hi Neil,

Sorry didn't notice this bit, read that meny posts I tend to skim things and miss bits. . .Lol

Post the link and lets have a look.!. . . but NO you shouldn't need 2 motors just one decent size connected to a shaft linking the 2 sides.
With Belts you tend to have quit high reduction to get the resolution down to something usable (for your needs something in the 20mm pitch range) and this reduction ups the torque which helps the motor. The trick is getting the reduction right so the meat of the motors torque is delivered at the optimum feed rate (for nema 34 this usually around 600rpm) and still give good resolution.


Problem with belts at the lengths you need for the long axis is keeping them tight enough they don't flap around but not so tight the stretch. . . . . So Something to consider could be switching from the conventional narrow gantry layout moving along the long axis and instead have a long gantry moving across the short axis.? This way you could use short twin motor driven belts on the narrow axis and R&P on the other long axis. . . . OR even ballscrews on the short axis.? Chinese ballscrews won't cost much more than belts,pulleys,bearing blocks etc so something I'd consider and ballscrews are very much easier to impliment.!