Will stepper be good for small cnc router ?

[ringram2077]

Picked up three of these on ebay thinking I might try my hand at a small cnc router. Price was right but the current seems high compared to other steppers I have seen. Here are the specs:

Pacific Scientific Nema 34 Stepper Motor
1.99 Volt Bipolar
5.9 Amp/Phase Bipolar
224 oz-in
Weight 3.2 lbs.
Shaft Size: 3/8"

Will I be able to get a driver for these or have I bought a pig in a poke ??

Thanks

[kiwichris]

You certainly should be able to get good results with those steppers, there are quite a few people (Including myself) driving routers with smaller steppers.

Have a look at the 'JGRO' and 'Joes2006' router threads in the forums, people are using steppers as small as 100oz-in with those designs with good results.

Your steppers are nema34, which makes the physically bigger than the 'normal' nema23 steppers used on most smaller router tables, but that shouldln't be an issue.

With the larger steppers you get more usable torque, at a lower speed... (As a very broad rule of thumb statement)

[SORCHEROR]

you could use gecko drives but they are expensive,on ebay i saw some 5 amp per phase drivers for 32 bucks eachmyour motors are 5.9 amps per phase but thats at max so i think they would work,the company on ebay is hubbard cnc something like that,ill look tomorow on ebay for there info,i bought three os them for future project,they look ok to me,havent used them yet so i dont know,they are beefy looking any way,and a low price

[ringram2077]

I found those on ebay. I believe from the looks of the board it is the same driver kitrus makes. They are advertised as 6 amp drives and go for $25 in kit form. I ordered three of those from Carl's Electrinics so we will see how they work out.

Thanks

[SORCHEROR]

on ebay they still have 7 drivers left for 32 buks each,the stores link is
http://stores.ebay.com/HUBBARD-CNC-COMPONENTS

[ringram2077]

I wonder how the cheapy drive will work out ? I know it is bare bones, single step only, and does not have a chopper feature to control current. Considering all that, what problems will I encounter trying to use a cheapy drive in a cnc router project ? I wonder about a power supply and what rating I will need. Will I need a variable voltage supply so I can adjust the current draw ? Sorry about the newbie questions.

Thanks

[kiwichris]

I wonder how the cheapy drive will work out ? I know it is bare bones, single step only, and does not have a chopper feature to control current. Considering all that, what problems will I encounter trying to use a cheapy drive in a cnc router project ? I wonder about a power supply and what rating I will need. Will I need a variable voltage supply so I can adjust the current draw ? Sorry about the newbie questions.

Thanks

As long as you don't have expectations of stellar performance a simple drive will do fine.

With the specs on those steppers, you'll need some kind of current regulation if you're going with a simple driver. I see the same ebay vendor sells power resistors, that's probably the easiest option, with his simple drives.

I've used a simple L/R (power resistor current limit) drive for my junk box router and it works just fine. Not as cool running or fast as a chopper on 30V, but at 12V with resistors it's working just fine for my first machine.

You just need to do some simple maths to get the correct values, or ask the vendor what he recommends, I imagine he has some info he can provide, given he sells the motors, drives and power resistors...