I recently bought a CNC mini-mill at an auction. It is fitted with steppers on the three axis. The X and Y are the same, and the Z is a bit smaller (physically). All the markings were removed from the motors and they are painted flat black. Yet another reason to hate proprietary hardware. The machine was originally designed to use a custom controller which is missing.
My question is, can I figure out what voltage the motors were intended to run at?
Does the coil resistance offer any clues?
I have a good quality multi-meter, and I have already reverse engineered the wiring. I don't want to fry the motors though.
Best Answer
If you use a good driver circuit that has current limiting and chopper features, it really won't matter. Basically you can slowly crank up the current on these drivers while checking the stepper motor temperature and usually you can operate them at a voltage MUCH higher then they were intended with the right circuit. I am currently in a CNC build project and I am about to do that very thing. You can follow me on my Blog. WWW.MENDINGTHINGS.COM
Good luck.