Karl Townsend wrote:
...
How do you develop a sense for the size you would need?
For example, just how much is 131 in/ozs of torque????
Is there a way to translate that number into some demonstrable amount?

For steppers, anything less than 600 oz/in is a joke. I used 2000
oz/in units on my knee mill and missed steps with big cuts and/or high
feeds.(direct drive to ball screw) I geared down 2:1 and went to 1/2
hp. servos; now i can remove some metal.

Karl

You have a rather large mill....
131 oz-in will move something like a Sherline or Taig
table at 10-15 inches/minute during rapids, using a microstepping
drive running at 24VDC. A 1/2 HP servo motor weighs perhaps more
than the table in this case - slight overkill, I'd say.