School me on linux cnc based 3d printers.

I was thinking about building a multipurpose XYZ table capable of both 3d printing as well as laser cutting ( 100 watt). The laser side seems simple enough, However I am not quite sure what components of Linux cnc are capable of doing the 3d printing part. I know I will need some way to drive the extruder and extruder heater, but I'm not sure if I need feedback from these components in linux? My axis drives will be analog imput servos, not sure about the extruder though? Would a small servo do, or is a stepper better suited for this job? Also since I am using analog servos I'm not sure what driver boards would work well, mesa, reprap, beagle bone?

Components that I have:

24x24 in XY axis table with limits and homes prewired.

3 sets of Analog input yaskawa servo motors + drives

Components that I think I need

ebay extruder head

control cards, mesa, beagle bone, reprap, ect?

ebay laser tube

laser power supply

laser liquid heat exchanger

laser colminator


Thanks.

Hi

I would suggest that you ask on MachineKit forum
groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/machinekit

3D printing is pretty much all that anyone on there does and there is a lot of expertise with that and laser.

On a rig this size, especially If you are using servos, I can see no point in increasing your complexity 90%, by trying to use a low power ARM board to drive it.

Just use a mesa combo on a normal PC, it is not as if you are going to be trying to save space.

regards