3d printer minimum speed

Hi, new to the forum. Just getting into 3d printing. I originally built my own 3 axis cnc for making custom circuit boards. It also had the rigidity and torque to mill aluminum. Then I decided I wanted to get into 3d printing. The frame is made out of 1/4" steel. All 3 axis have nema 17 high torque stepper motors, 8mm single start lead screws and linear rods and bearings. I removed the spindle and installed a wade extruder reloaded kit. I removed the steel build plate on the y axis and replaced it with a 10mm thick acrylic sheet that will hold a mk2b heated bed and a 3mm aluminum build plate. The build area will be around 200mm x 200mm. I am trying to reduce the weight of the moving axes and may look at getting the x and z axis plates cut out in 1/8" steel or aluminum or making them out of acrylic sheet..

Previously before I removed the spindle and installed the extruder and changed out the y axis plate I would say the max speed was between 1/4" (6.35mm) to 1/2" (12.7mm) a second. All 3 axis are 4064 pulses for 1" (25.4mm) of movement which is 0.00625mm per pulse. Is there a point where the speed is too slow for 3d printing?

I've been thinking of either changing out the lead screws for 4 start versions or changing to a belt drive system for the X and Y axes. Z axis will stay the same.

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Not really, you can print slow as long as you keep temperature low at the hotend. If you don't mind wait 20 hours for something that can be printed in 2? But at least you will have an amazing accuracy.

Don't waste the money on lead screws for X and Y, use belts unless you fill the need for lead screws.

The problem with super low speeds is that the very hot extruder nozzle will remelt the layer(s) of plastic below the one it is printing and wreck the beautiful precision with which they were deposited. The result may look pretty bad.

The good news is that you can try it and if it sucks, convert to higher speed drive.