Roller Chain?

[rlrhett]

I saw a show last night on the manufacturing of roller chains. It made me wonder if anyone has used roller chains and sprockets rather than rack and pinion, screws or timing belts. Can anyone point me to a discussion on the merits for a hobby cnc application?

[dertsap]

Use roller chain to move gantry.

[Weldtutor]

Originally Posted by rlrhett I saw a show..... It made me wonder if anyone has used roller chains and sprockets rather than rack and pinion, screws or timing belts.

Another link to a chain driven table that gives excellent results!

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16634

Have fun reading.

[dertsap]

steel cable may be a good and economical alternative , i was going to use chain on my router , i experimented a fair bit with it and i was quite pleased with the results . i ended up getting a wicked deal on some 10 start lead screws and crossed over to screws , ive used one screw/axis ,so what ive done to keep the gantry solid is added cable and pulleys on shafts at each end of the table (similar to a belt system), after looking at that i see no reason cable couldn t drive a system , once the cables are tightened up there is nothing within reason that will make them slip

simple basics is usually the most effective with most stuff , i think too much gets over engineered ,in the link i posted previously i loved the way Beetman changed peoples tunes with his system