I apologize for not reading everything, Jazzcnc's post would have answered my question.
I'm looking into your advice about getting away from direct drive. It would be much easier to optimize stepper motor performance with the ability to change the drive ratio. I'm not sure why this side of the pond prefers direct drive and drives on the wrong side of the road.
One of the reasons I joined this group was to look into different ways to do things.
Thanks to all for your help
Mike