Hi guys I have a question
Obviously higher torque stepper motors are more expensive than lower torque steppers, and a wade extruded required 40 Ncm of torque right? So if I was building a prusa i3 it would be cheaper to use 4 lower torque motors for axial control and then 1 40 Ncm stepper just for the extruder. Is this right in thinking or should I just spend the money on high torque motors? And if I should go for the lower torque steppers, what torque rating is good?
0.4Nm doesn’t sound particularly high torque…
Typical full-size NEMA17 motors are around 50Ncm, which is enough to lug a typical RepRap toolhead around at high speeds. But honestly, you’re not going to save more than $5 per motor if you go from 48Ncm motors to some with half that torque, but the weaker ones are going to give you issues that can possibly take a good while to figure out.
And 5 nema17 motors can be had, shipped, off ebay for about $50…
In my experience there aren’t as many price differences between higher/lower torque NEMA 17s as you would think, at least within the normal range. Steppers in the typical range of about 20-50kg*cm should be about the same price (definitely don’t pay more than $14 each before shipping, but they can be found for less) Ones outside this range (in either direction) are likely to be more expensive because they are less common.
The real tradeoff for higher/lower-torque motors is the size and mass of the motor body.