...
When attempting to make our final design, we initially lasercut our linkage system out of 1/4" acrylic and used a lower torque rated NEMA 17 stepper motor. We soon discovered that our motor was unable to drive our mechanism due to our motor not having enough torque as well as our linkage mechanism being too heavy. Knowing this was the reason our mechanism wasn't moving, we lightweighted decreased the weight of our linkages by using 1/8" acrylic instead, and using a higher torque rated NEMA 17 stepper motor.
...