You are not logged in. Please login or register.
SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Hacks & Mods → Screws or belts ?
I have a SD-4, love it, best thing since sliced bread! My question is about the use of belts for the carriage VS screws (Z)axis. Are the motors fast enough to run screws on the X and Y axis? And is either method any better than the other for precision? It seams like the belt method requires a lot more maintenance and adjustments…just wondering.
Screws could work *if* you used high quality multistart threads... otherwise you would have to upgrade the motors and such.
Belts give you a lot of performance for the buck 
and have much lower friction than standard screws, I run MS screws on my plasma rigs and they work pretty good but they do have their issues and while I run antibacklash nuts on them they still have measurable amounts which for plasma work is ok but if you start worrying about ~.5mm for aesthetics in 3dPrinting then it will cost you 
google "reprap belts vs screws"
It will let you know alot!
Screws are overrated for low-power situations. They can make sense with traditional CNC machines, because of the ease of developing thrust, but this is not very helpful for a 3D printer.
They have many drawbacks, too.
But if you want to do further research, look into the "Lisa Simpson screws" but I'm remembering that off the top of my head. If I am not mistaken, it is the most recent public screw attempt that I have seen, with a few advantages over belts (in a delta configuration.) but there are still drawbacks.
thanks for the info, I will check them out
screws tend to have a good mechanical advantage; but as the result they tend to lack speed. Belts are the opposite. In 3d printing usually the carriage is pretty light and motors are not very powerful, hence belts are a better fit. Having said that; it s possible to come up with combination of screw pitch and stepper force to make screws usable on 3d printer; but that is an oddball situation, b/c it would require high torque stepper motors.
I have been able to get pretty decent speed on my smaller plasma table when leaving everything off of the carriage and switching+tuning motors, I would say it can easily do the lower end of 3d printing speed especially what I see some people slowing their printers down to achieve better/quieter prints.
Ronsii, no doubt, but there is no advantage to that.
If you switch to screws you need a reason for it, and they are more expensive without being more accurate [Screws also have backlash.] They also have rotational inertia that adds a lot and prevens quick movement changes, which 3D printing is all about.
They're totally suitable for Plasma CNC, though.
Tomek Yes, I know the pro's and con's of the differing cnc setup's pretty well as I have quite a few machines around here some working some missing parts found on other machines... but the most fun I have is experimenting to see just what can be achieved with a bit of switching around pieces here and there and getting quotes from aerotech and some of their competitors for more pieces
When I built the last small plasma table I would have liked to spend an extra couple grand for some better screws that would have zero backlash but cash was a bit short back then... still is and the screws I got on there now have decent accuracy and backlash for their cost, the actual backlash may be a bit less than I mentioned in the earlier post as that was tested with the full machine torch and air marker onboard.
The main reason I was trying faster speeds was for a welding experiment of fast deposition wire feed for a custom project but I had too much trouble with the feed mechanics on the wire system so it is on the back burner for a while until I can redesign/build a better feeder.
SoliForum - 3D Printing Community → Hacks & Mods → Screws or belts ?
Powered by PunBB, supported by Informer Technologies, Inc.
