Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Gantry topology

I should say, I only said 30ft because I was talking to a guy who mentioned
needing $1000 worth of it to drive a 60ft gantry. He works as a machine tool
retrofitter I think.

My total travelling length on the long axis would be 9ft or so. Which means
I should need about 18 foot of drive belt, or 9ft of rack and pinion.

I guess that since the loads on the belt are fairly low, a small cross
sectional belt would be okay?

If you go to www.Gates.com they have quite a wide range of belt sizes and
constructions. They even have a software tool you can download for free
that's design to help you build a belt system. I haven't had a chance to try
it out yet - it looks a bit involved from a first glance.

Something about rack and pinion is telling me that it might not be as good
as belts in this instance. The loads are rapid acceloration inertias. Rack
and pinion always strikes me as the thing you have on the carraige of your
lathe for doing slow manual work.

I have seen a lot of printers and plotters running on belts.

Unfortunately, as the growing trend seems to be, almost none of the sites
I've visited include prices and quite often they each want separate logins
for web systems that don't work. Nore do they answer emails. A highly
annoying trait when you want to buy something off them.

Best wishes,
John

> I'm also interested, but in a more modest 15 foot lenght.
>
> When I looked, the belts were more expensive, so one needs to define
> the power being considdered.
>
> I was looking at a plasma table. no cutting forces involved.
>
> Dave