PRO Rack and Pinion Drive DIY Guide

PRO rack and pinion drive gear profiles are matched with our PRO Gear Rack providing higher load capacity and longer gear life. They are available in 39" or 52" sections that are splice-able for virtually unlimited travel.

The system uses an imperial 20 pitch (meaning 20 gear teeth on a 1 inch pitch circle diameter pinion, or a linear pitch of 0.1571 inch) and 20 degree pressure angle, and are only compatible with equal pitch and pressure angle hardware. "Module" 1, 1.5, 2, etc racks will not work with our pinions because the spacing between the teeth is incorrect. Racks with a different pressure angle (even with the same pitch) are also incompatible and will cause excessive wear and noise.

Compatible motors, cables and other electronics components are available in our Electronics category.

For Avid CNC control systems:

When used with an Avid CNC controller, the drive system parameters are pre-configured in the software's profiles and calculations aren't needed.

For 3rd Party control systems:

If using a 3rd party control system, calibration will be required. Most control systems will have a calibration procedure that can be run to automatically set the distance traveled per motor revolution parameters. If your system doesn't have calibration procedure and manual parameter input is required, the necessary parameters will need to be calculated.

To calculate parameters for our rack an pinion system, you will need the following values:

Gear Reduction Ratio

Driven by the Motor Pulley choice.

Default Motor Steps per Revolution

This is the motor's default factory setting. Most default to 200 but there are exceptions.

Micro-stepping Factor

Used if increased resolution is desired and the control system supports it.