Posted by Paul Brett on October 26, 2005 at 19:32:44:
Hello.
I am Paul Brett, a 4th year mechanical engineer from the University of Edinburgh.
I have a need to move a small mounting driven by a low-power stepper motor backwards and forwards in a straight line as programmed.
My first thought was to couple a worm gear directly to the output of the stepper, then mesh the worm with a rack, this would give me linear motion plus gearing down which is also desirable.
Trouble is, there are lots of off the shelve worm-ordinary gears motors and not many worm-rack systems. Would I be advised from a cost point of view to go for a simple worm gear arrangement and then couple that to the rack?
Advice from any gear-heads would be much appreciated!
Cheers, Paul Brett
SCOTLAND