Re: CCM rails
You really need to add a 3:1 reduction ratio to get your motion back in the right range otherwise you will get a lot of jerky motion (I nearly made the same mistake as you but a couple of guys stopped me). The gear boxes will usually have a fair bit of backlash but its not hard to build a timing belt reduction that bolts onto the NEMA 23 mounting holes (which is what I did).
Read my journey here https://forum.linuxcnc.org/30-cnc-ma...e?limitstart=0
PS, I found the maximum speed I could get out of my cheap NEMA 23 was 750 rpm using hardware step generation from a Mesa 7i76e ethernet board and 20x microstepping. I doubt you'd get that speed out of a standard breakout board. (the Mesa board can do up to 10 Mhz). I had worked on max RPM of about 460 rpm based on my experience with an Arduino so I was very surprised!
Rod Webster
www.vehiclemods.net.au