Help needed with STEPPER MOTOR choices.

[The Gresley Luthier]

Hi, I first posted this 4 days ago with no replies yet, maybe I got the wrong Forum, here it is again..

I am building my own CNC wood router, for cutting and shaping guitar bodies and other wooden parts, I have limited space in my man cave, so I have gone with an initial design with a work area of 800mm x 600mm using 16mm Linear Rails. My problem is I cannot decide if I should use NEMA 17's or NEMA 23 's, Stepper Motors, mainly because NEMA 23's appear a lot more expensive than NEMA 17's (I am retired on a Pension) The hardest wood I will be cutting will probably be Alder & Basswood for the bodies, I sometimes use Mahogany, Maple or Rosewood for Guitar Fingerboards, this usually involves very little heavy work

All advice would be gratefully appreciated, I hope I have provided enough information.

Regards.

Ray

[EddyCurrent]

If you don't want to be disappointed later I would go with the NEMA 23s.
I built a machine for the same purpose but went for 900 x 600 due to similar lack of space.
My build log is here if you are interested, https://www.mycncuk.com/threads/6565...9344#post49344

[The Gresley Luthier]

Many thanks, that's what I initially thought, I will just have to save up a bit more money.

[Lee Roberts]

Hi Ray, welcome to the forum!

Sorry i did mean to reply to you, doh! life gets in the way.

Anyway, defo Nema 23's, and here is why: Sticky: What size stepper motor do I-need.

This was found in the:

Stepper & Servo Motors
Discuss Servo Motors or Stepper Motors and other related topics here.
80-Stepper-Servo-Motors

[The Gresley Luthier]

Thanks Lee, some bed time reading hey!

[gd485]

Hi Ray.
I’m new to the world of CNC routers. Last year I built a 1000mm x 600mm machine that’s heavy enough to cut aluminium. I use Nima 34 & 23 motors. I found the drive voltage an important factor in providing good torque. Another factor is the maximum cutting speed. Most steppers produce about half of their static torque at 500rpm. So the ball screw pitch is an important consideration which leads on to microstepping.
Another factor is microstepping, this has an adverse effect on motor torque but reduces vibration.
On my machine with 5mm pitch ball screws I used a Nema 23 for the Z axis whilst the gantry axis motor is a Nema 34 and two Nema 23 motors running the table axis. This gives a max speed of 2500mm / min.