Greetings! We are trying to rehab two TAZ Workhorse printers and know they need new Z-axis motors. What we don’t know is what the motors’ voltage rating should be. Moon’s no longer has the specs for this model on its site.
- Moon’s Stepping Motor 4118S-08P-07RO
- Nema 17, probably half height but it has a large metal block on it that we did not add (so, maybe a damper, maybe not?); full height fits in the cavity where the motor attaches
- 1.8 degree step
- 1.00 Amp (all our others are 1.5 A - can we use them here?)
Amazon has 1 Amp motors in many voltages - anyone know which we need or if it’s safe to use the 1.5 A motors Lulzbot is still selling?
You can use 1.5 amp motors where a 1 amp motor was before because that is the max current and a standard motor usually will only run at about half of its max current to keep it cold.
That metal block is the planetary gears. Otherwise, they’re a fairly standard half-height NEMA17. That’s the whole point of a lulzbot machine. Standard off-the-shelf parts for easy sourcing.
Fantastic! We’ve had a lot of electrical issues across different models lately and didn’t want to add to the chaos by experimenting with the motors and frying something that isn’t already acting up 
Me again. We got very excited by the prospect of using the motors we already have, but… the planetary gears sound important. Do newer motors still need them?
Since the motor/gears combo that shipped with the Workhorses seem to be a Lulzbot custom part, does anyone have recommendations for replacement planetary gears? We are limited in where we can purchase supplies (university procurement rules), so features/specs to look for are also appreciated. I know I’m looking for the NEMA 17 frame size with 5:1 ratio and a 25 mm shaft. If it’s attached to a motor, it should be 200 steps/1.8 degrees. Is there anything else I need to know?
Thanks!
The specific Moons geared motor Lulzbot originally used were a bit unusual in that they maintained the exact size and dimensions of their normal non-geared Moons motors and that they were an even 5:1 gear ratio. Those are not obtainable anymore, but Lulzbot may have some for sale. Current models have an LDO geared motor that is longer and unfortunately is custom made for Lulzbot (probably because of the 5:1 even ratio). I tried getting these from LDO but they said I had to get them from Lulzbot. If you decide to use the newer motors due to availability keep in mind you will need to reprint the z lowers to accomodate the different dimensions of the motor (smaller mouting footprint, longer overall length) and those are not currently posted to Lulzbot’s Gitlab project. You could ask them for them, they tend to be very helpful. If you want to stick with the older motors I have two new ones I could part with that I got from Arrow when they were still available. They were, however, obscenely expensive.