Hey all, I have a zenbot 4896 router that is basically entirely plastic. And I want to start upgrading pieces to increase its rigidity. I do a fair bit of aluminum and even on some wood I get horrible chatter and machine vibrations pretty regularly.

I am running a 2.2kw water cooled spindle which is significantly heavier then the router it was designed for.

I am a welder fabricator by trade but I admit , I know very little about this.
The machine is all belt driven and the flex from the plastic , and the belts is quite a lot. I can push my spindle with my pinky while it’s cutting and it’ll cut a chunk out of the wall.

I upgraded to a ball screw 1605 I believe and the machine used Nema 23 steppers.
I can’t tell you what it weighs exactly but it’s 12”x6”x.5” steel flat bar x2.
My fit wasn’t done with a dial indicator or anything super precise. Just squares and stuff. When my plate is mounted to the slide blocks it moves fairy freely up and down the guide rails. And when attached to the ball screw it’s quite easily turned by drill.

However when I attach my Nema 23 425oz motor. It doesn’t go all the way up and down. It’ll go a little bit then whine heavily. The shaft is not spinning in the coupling I checked.

Could the motor just not have enough torque? Could It likely be my fitment? The plate moved freely up and down by hand.

In all honesty I lost quite a bit of ball bearings when I was making the piece. But it was just a cheap 300mm kit on amazon and I could buy new slide blocks to replace those if need be. Anyways. I know I’m all over the place here. But just wondering what direction I should go. Am I wasting my tome with a Nema 23?

Could I put a Nema 34 on my z axis and leave the other Nema 23’s? I’m using a gecko g540 with an ess