Rack & Pinion vs Ball screw

[jwagner]

Our 25" x 33" CNC Router has a single ballscrew moving Y axis. We want to upgarde to dual drive left and right.

We don't really like our ball screw experience (chunky, clunky, noisy, vibration) and are considering going to rack and pinion drive for both sides.

Are there downsides to rack and pinion that I should consider?

Where do I go for parts? I am looking for a well priced commercial source, someone who has stock. I don;t have time for stuff to come around on e-bay.

[NC Cams]

A well built ball screw (even a rolled thread precision one) should have NO appreciable backlash and be smooth turning/running. Mine are that way (ily smooth and quiet) on my mill and asside from a recent ball reload to reduce slop, they are OEM in every respect...

Any rack and pinion that I've ever seen will generally always have backlash due to inherent issues with tooth to tooth spacing variations - ditto that with regard to jig and fixture grade mill operting precision.

HIWIN has off the shelf ball screws for Bridgeport mills that can be adapted to darn near anything....