**Longer lead**<br /> pros:<br /> 1. faster movement (mostly benefits homing)<br /> 2. more standard<br /> 3. weak motor friendly<br /> <br /> cons <br /> 1. backlash<br /> 2. less resolution (unless using 0.9 degree motor but see note*) although this is ignorable since it's still very high. it's already around 4x higher than xy axes using the longest leads**.<br /> **Shorter leads**<br /> pros<br /> 1. more accuracy but only if you turn off microstepping. note that it can give you more resolution, but it's useless resolution unless you print with < 0.01mm layer heights. Turning off microstepping trades away this useless resolution for increased accuracy.<br /> 2. less backlash<br /> <br /> cons<br /> 1. stronger motors maybe needed<br /> 2. slower homing<br /> <br /> In the end, you get shorter leads to increase the resolution so you can decrease microstepping, which increases accuracy. <br /> <br /> footnotes<br /> *it makes more sense to use higher degree motors to drive shorter leads than vice versa because of higher torque.<br /> **0.0025mm vs 0.0125mm