Newbie- Choosing a stepper motor

[abferm]

Hello, I'm designing/building my first CNC router. I have no idea how t choose a stepper motor. I want the machine to work well, but cost as little as possible. Please provide me with some guidelines as far as torque, etc. are concerned.

[arizonavideo]

You will need to give us a bit more info.

What size router and material you wish to work with.

Low cost is a relative term.

[Jesse B]

Machine size, approximate weight of the gantry/moving table, depending on your design, and your budget are all needed, as well as which materials you're using and what kind of cutting speeds you'd like to achieve.

[abferm]

I'm going to guess my gantry will weigh between 50 and 75 lbs(very rough estimate). My major material will most likely be wood. Everything will move on rails and will be propelled by screws. Cut time is not my top priority. I'm not sure what type of router I will use. It may end up being just a Dremel or a flex shaft tool.

[jsheerin]

For that size of machine, I'd go with a Nema 23 380oz*in size from either cncrouterparts.com or Keling and drive them with a Gecko G540 with a 48V power supply. Use the rack and pinion components from cncrouterparts.com for high speed or longer than 4' of travel or a 1/2-10 5 start acme screw with antibacklash nuts. Don't use single start screws - you'll want to go faster than those screws will let you for wood.

[CarveOne]

You may be patient enough to watch a one start lead screw machine run at 30 ipm initially, but we guarantee that your patience won't last very long. I'm with jsheerin, pay the price now and have the option to run faster as a simple keyboard command. I went the cheap 1 start screw route for the same reasons and paid for screws and nuts twice. Cutting wood cleanly needs around 100 to 300 ipm speeds. I had to change to 5 start screws to get into that range.

CarveOne