Something like this http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/products-page/nema-23/nema-23-quarter-inch-dual-shaft-with-flat-270-oz-in
@David_Kirtley yes there are larger boards you can use by breaking out the signal lines from the controller I was thinking more of staying within the A49xx and the DRV88xx type drivers which are extremely cheap for the power and control level you have using them.
Check out openbuilds, and you can just use >100 oz nema 17’s…
Thanks @Mat_Helm … Heading there now…
Be careful of the Steppers & controllers from ebay. You want ones that have LOW inductance… Lots of those 280oz and 380oz on ebay are high inductance and to get good speed AND torque out of them, you need to run 80v. The kits on Ebay come with 24v. This website has good quality steppers AND controllers. http://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/ I personally use the 570oz for my converted Mill, but they have smaller ones that would work good on a gantry based router. The MX3660
and MX4660 controllers (3 axis and 4 axis) are both really nice all in one controllers.
For impedance… Would 3.5mH be good for 290oz motors?? And 9mh be good for 425oz?
i use 8a str8 drivers + http://www.applied-motion.com/products nema23 354oz
Some info here, http://reprap.org/wiki/Stepper_motor
http://www.daycounter.com/Calculators/Stepper-Motor-Calculator.phtml
The 9mh is tad high… What’s the amperage for the 290oz and 425oz steppers?
30 inches is a long stretch for little 8mm screws. Will possibly have to worry about whipping.
The screw shield is just an arduino shield that runs the leads to screw terminals. The grblshield or maybe something like a ramps board that take the pololu type drivers are fine for something small but if you want to run more powerful motors, inadequate. Of a similar nature, the parallel breakout boards let you connect your arduino to a parallel port based driver. They cost $6 last time I bought some.
From what you have described, it will be a light duty “fun” type build. Doesn’t seem the best use of high dollar components in my personal opinion. I would just grab an eBay bundle of power supply, drivers, and steppers in the 1 to 2 Nm range along with the $9 screw shield and worry about an "optimal " set up for a more sophisticated build. Don’t over engineer it.
Good motors need good drivers, bad motors need even better drivers.