Benefits of Belt Drives for Steppers

[Muzzer]

Well thought out! Most constructors seem to be fixated on the headline (stall) torque and/or don't consider the fall off of torque with speed. Of course, if you gear your stepper down 2:1 or more, your ballscrews etc need to be able to withstand the resulting force when you inevitably run against the stops. To me, if you go stepper, you might a well go direct drive. Conversely, if you go servo, you might as well use a reduction ratio, as most ballscrews aren't happy at 3000rpm+ and you generally get less torque from a servo to start with.

One moment of inertia mistake I made was to retain the large cast iron handwheels on my first (Bridgeport) conversion. I thought it would be clever and sensible to retain the possibility of manual operation but once I had got used to an MPG, I soon dropped that idea. And once I'd calculated the MOI of the system (mass of table, saddle, vise and workpiece, referred back to an equivalent MOI at the motor) and compared it with that of the handwheel, I could see how much they messed up the response. So if you insist on retaining handwheels, go for small and/or plastic ones.