Hey lucas, I just joined the forum and stumbled on your thread. While I "get" you're angle that this can technically be done with DC motors and an encoder, trust me when I tell you that it can't be done easily or well. While I have yet to build a printer (hence why I joined the forum, to start collecting build info) I do work with motor controls everyday. Actually, I repair motor drive units: Dby kilroy - Reprappers