Mike- I only gave you part of the story. The rest is that I need to accurately cut full sheets down to various sizes, up to 2'x8', in order to make tanks. A sheet of 1/2" acrylic weighs about 100#, way too much for me to handle on the table saw and jointer. Even with a panel saw to make the cuts, I can't handle that kind of sheet on a jointer which is required to get clean glue joints.
My dream is to heave it up on the table, square it, and hit go.
In order to get a good clean solvent-welded joint, the edge has to be nearly perfect. Customers don't like to pay for tanks that leak.
I will reconsider the rack and pinion.. Is that what is on your system?
HFD- The ultra economy systems don't have encoders, but that is an option on a mid-level machine. Thanks for the note about the arcs- I had not thought of that potential problem.
Zeph