i had a strange idea hit me last night and that was to use a geared stepper that would then drive belts to lift your Z axis, not all that different from a delta type system.
its mostly just a strange idea that came to me, but i thought it might be worth a try, too bad the geared steppers are so pricy.
Well, you could print the gears, like Tim Rastall (jimjimma here) did for his Ingentis printer's Z. Find it on G+, or about halfway through this thread. Scroll down until you find the geared version. Several other ideas are discussed in that thread as well.
