Belt Driven Router for milling aluminum


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Thread: Belt Driven Router for milling aluminum

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    Default Belt Driven Router for milling aluminum

    A buddy of mine was talking about building a router for milling 1/2" aluminum and acrylics. We got to talking about drive systems. The idea of a belt driven system came up. I couldn't find any major companies making a belt driven system on a 4'x4' platform.

    Any thoughts on how that might hold up compared to a typical rack and pinion system? Obviously it would have to be some heavy duty belts. 1" wide or so

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    Default Re: Belt Driven Router for milling aluminum

    If you don't want it to act like a rubber band, it would need to be 3"-4" wide. That's why you don't see any belt drive machines.

    If you want to use a belt drive, it should be something like this one:
    http://www.cnczone.com/forums/linear...570-forum.html

    Gerry

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    Default Re: Belt Driven Router for milling aluminum

    Quote Originally Posted by Jed L View Post
    A buddy of mine was talking about building a router for milling 1/2" aluminum and acrylics. We got to talking about drive systems. The idea of a belt driven system came up.
    I wouldn't suggest this at all for machining aluminum. Wood is a possibility but you need to be really smart about your mechanical design.
    I couldn't find any major companies making a belt driven system on a 4'x4' platform.
    I believe many of the plasma table guys use belt drives, at least I seem to remember one or more being advertised. Some have put routers on plasma machine but in general plasma machines just aren't that rigid even for the machining of wood. At least the low end ones aren't, the high end machines you might see in a steel services company are another issue and none of those that I know of use belt drives.

    Now does that mean a belt drive isn't practical (for wood anyways), I wouldn't say that because it comes down to expectations. You could get exactly what you want out of belt driven machine but I highly doubt that your expectations in aluminum are that low.
    Any thoughts on how that might hold up compared to a typical rack and pinion system?
    I'm not sure I'd call rack and pinion typical in smallish CNC builds. They would be the norm in larger machines though. in any event I have the suspicion that most of the smaller builds are lead screw driven as lead screws provide a good trade off in with respect to performance and cost.
    Obviously it would have to be some heavy duty belts. 1" wide or so
    I actually have a lot of implementation and maintenance experience on belt drive linear slides and frankly 1" wide belts are barely getting there for suitability as a rack and pinion replacement. Some of these are commercial extractors built for injection mold machines running very high accelerations. These still need to run with good repeatability and rigidity as such most of the axis have belts that are at least 50 mm wide. For these machines to work correctly the belts are tensioned extremely tight. Plus the belts wrap around the driving pulley almost 200 degrees, the belt forming an ohm ΩΩΩ shape in conjunction with idler pulleys. Further slap in the belt is managed by laying the belts on the frame of the machine. I think it is fair to say a good belt drive is a lot harder to accomplish in an home built machine than many of the alternatives.

    Generally you see belt drives where speed is important. if speed isn't important you can accomplish other goals with lead screws at a favorable costs. Costs here mean all considerations in getting a design up and running properly. It should be noted that there is a limit to the speed one can get out of a belt drive for real high acceleration solutions there has been a move to linear motor driven extractors.

    In the end I don't see pursuing a belt drive machine for general purpose aluminum machining as worth while. You might be able to justify it for a specific purpose machine. In a general purpose machine it might work great on one job and like crap on another or force material removal rates so Low as to not be worthwhile.

    Interestingly there is much going on in the riprap world where belt drive machines are common but even here some people claim much better performance with leadscrew driven axis, that might be one or all of the axises. In the end machine design is ALWAYS about trade offs. I just have a hard time seeing belt driven axises, on a machine targeting the machining of aluminum, as a good trade off.



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    Default Re: Belt Driven Router for milling aluminum

    I might add that on some of our belt driven machines the belts are replaced often. Usually there are two failures modes to keep an eye out for. One is the steel cords in the belts breaking and the belt as a result tearing. The other is the teeth in the timing belts being worn down, usually in areas of high acceleration. The belts fail faster than lead screw based machines doing basically the same thing.



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