I'm looking to skip all the research and get right to a project, so I'd like some suggestions for direction ;-)
I'd like to build a small (24"x24" or so) XY positioner to drive an oxyacetylene cutting torch. I can come up with the mechanical part, probably using threaded rod as worm screws.
The torch weighs a few pounds at most, and needs to travel at between 5 and 25 inches per minute. Repeatability isn't too important, as welds can easily correct 1/8" misfits on parts. If I used 5/8x11 allthread rods, that would be between 50 and 250 rpm on the motors.
I haven't physically seen commercial versions of these things, but they apparently use servo motors. Is there a reason to chose servo over stepper? Steppers seem a little simpler to drive.
I'm not very familiar with either type, but I'm a pretty quick study if someone can point me the right direction. I expect to drive the motor drivers with a laptop, probably thru the parallel port, generating the individual step commands. Building a wirewrap driver board with 5804B chips or something is no sweat. Cutting non-linear shapes is desired
I'd like to build this for practically nothing (as much as for the challenge as because I'm cheap).
If someone can ballpark a motor size/torque, etc. from zero information, it would be great and much appreciated!