A trivia question about stepper motors in general..

When running at rated current, how hot should a stepper get?

I've got some small Nema 23 steppers, rated at 3A / 1.8V (From the sticker on them). They are salvaged from a Sekoshia printer.

I've used them in a few odds and sods, but never at their rated curent before. I'm in the process of building a 'junk box router' using them (other thread) and have found that running at 2.7A they get quite hot if not stepping for a while...

As per post #12 in that thread, the stepper is almost too hot to hold afer only 15 minutes running with 90% of the time spent idle, rather than stepping.

Cheers, Me.