Re: Plasma Cutter

> Would it be a terrible idea to use toothed belting in lengths from Stock
> Drive Products instead of bicycle chain or a rack gear? I too am

considering

> building an X-Y table for routing purposes. Knowing the pros and cons of
> this from you guys would be a great asset!

There is a company called Brecoflex that offers belting in continuous
lengths.

While there are probably many reasons not to use ballscrews for plasma
cutting, this idea may apply to other machines.

Has anyone thought of just using the generic 5/8 rolled ball screw? It comes
in up to 12 ft lengths and you can get the double preloaded ball nuts, make
up a thrust bearing plate that would anchor to the carriage and the ball nut
would be driven by the motor instead of the motor driving the screw. The
ends of the screw would be mounted under tension thus eliminating the
problem of lead screw whip.

If there were enough people interested in something like this, the group
could get together and design a mechanism and have a bunch made reducing the
cost with a volume purchase. Just a thought....

The idea of using the rack because mounting it sideways makes it self
cleaning, you may be able to use the belt in the same orientation and take
advantage of gravity cleaning as well.

Bill Griffin