Which controller and motors? Newbie advice please

[irving2008]

I wanted to stick to 8mm to save on buying more bearings lol. I guess I'll go with 12mm then. I think the pitch on 12mm is about 1.5 or so. I've edited my previous post to show what I want to use it for.

Edit: Have you ever thought of using the drawer slide system on a budget?

standard metric coarse thread on 12mm is 1.75mm. You can get 1, 1.25 and 1.5 metric fine threads but threaded rod is likely to be coarse. Consider 12 x 3 or 12 x 4 trapezoidal rather than threaded rod if cost prevents you going to ballscrews.

Oh and you'll struggle to cut aluminium unless its a very very light cut. The spreadsheet shows 5Nm cutting force which is light wood, ali could be 25+ Nm, acrylic could be an issue too as that needs fast cutting speeds and a fast spindle speed to actual cut rather than melt the material!