Small Linear Guides & Ballscrews...

[stombory]

I am looking for linear guides and ballscrews. Three sets, with 4-5" of travel only, so they should be 7-8" each, right?

I prefer that the linear guides are as low profile as possible, and the ballscrews will be working with a nema 23 size stepper motor if that matters.

Also, is it unheard of to have linear guides running with only one slide? Or do you absolutely have to use two slides? I would like to use one slide since the machine will be so small, and this way my linear guides could be much shorter, and get me much more travel.

At this point I have every part needed except my linear guides and ballscrews, and my design is complete. I just need to get these parts so I can verify the size of the body before I send out my orders for custom metal parts.

[andrebenschop]

Hi Stombory,

I cannot help with any parts, but I can add a few words on the use of 1 or more carriages/slides. Depending on the use of your machine (-laser-engraving is very different from milling in terms of forces and torques applied!) you may be fine with 3 slides (2 on 1 rail and just 1 on the opposite rail), as this configuation is the least overconstaint. If your slides and rails have no play (pretension or prestressed balls are present in the slides), any "out of paralellism" will generate HUGE forces on the balls and may permanently damage them, your slides and/or your rails, depending which part is winning. If you intend to use only 2 slides (1 on each rail), you design is very prone to tipping/rocking around the line which runs from one slide across your machine to the other slide. If your slides are short, the balls on the end of the slide will have to cough up huge forces if you accelerate and decellerate the structure with the ball screw. Technically, it is not a challenge to design something that will last 2 demo's (1 low speed and 1 high speed for friends and family), but you probably want to build something to last, right..?
So depending on your design (materials used, dimensions, stifnesses, etc.) and the accelerations/decellerations you may get away with using only 1 slide on each rail, but I strongly encourage you to make some calculations and look into some specs (especially torque ratings) of some suppliers before getting disappointed (sooner or later).

Just my $ 0.02.

Andre from The Netherlands

[stombory]

hey thanks a lot for your detailed response!

I think I am going to agree with you... I'm probably going to use two rails with two slides since that's what has been proven to work best.

[rowbare]

Another option for a small travel machine is to use wide linear slides. Check out the machine in this post: SmoothStepper user experiences...