I’m making some progress. I hit my mark of 90 inches per minute on my Z axis. It might go faster, but that is the max acceleration I am going to set for my whole machine, so I did not run it up any more than that. My old Z axis could not go quite that fast. That is why I built a new one.
Now I have to make a clamp for the spindle.
Have you ever tried doing a 2:1 belt drive on Z? Back when I had my Shapeoko 2, that was how I did my Z. It works very well and I think I may do the same on the current machine. Something like this:
@John_Scherer
I just direct drive all of my axis. It makes things simpler. The Z is a bit of a pain in the ass because I can’t support the lead screw on both ends. Perhaps there is a way, but it would likely add a lot of complexity that I prefer to avoid. I favor designs with as few parts as possible.
