I am looking at building an Ox style setup (approx. 700 x 900). I have NEMA 17 steppers and the control board sitting around and would like to use these on the setup to save some money. I do not plan on any heavy loading (small hand router would be the heaviest load I might use) so I think I would be OK. Any thoughts/comments. Thanks,
Obviously would depend on the strength of the nema 17 steppers but here is a project built successfully around them. Stinger V Micro Mill. It's a small mill but as long as you don't intend to move a heavy router and don't make the gantry a monster it should be fine. Just understand it will have it's limitations. Moving the weight of the gantry and router is only part of the motor power issue. How much resistance the material being cut puts up is also an issue. Cutting foam or balsa shouldn't be an issue. Cutting hardwoods may be an issue and cutting aluminum may not be possible. Also I'm not sure which belts Robert used in the example. If he used the GT2 belts and pulleys this will give it a little better mechanical advantage on a low power system.
I agree. You are most likely to be able to get away with NEMA 17 motors on the X and Z axes. I've got a 1000mm x 1000mm and the NEMA 24 motors I have on the Y axis seem a bit under-powered. The Y axis motors have to struggle with my monster X axis gantry. While the X and Z axes have never had any troubles and I have more motor than I need. -Jonathon Duerig
My Steppers are 76oz/in. I currently have a different CNC setup but am looking to upgrade to the OX style for several reasons. I was hoping to save some cost (and getting grief from my wife) by reusing the electronics and some of the hardware. (Ramps 1.4 and stepper motors)
I agree with @dddman, Still, I'm doing tests at the moment with NEMA17 motors on a 1500mm gantry, but they are driven by 2A @ 24vDC and a single digital driver (tuned). I might go to 2.5 or even 3A if they don't get too hot. The motors are wired parallel else 1A would be enough. -Ronald
