[jacquesm]

> I think he's exaggerating for effect.

I wasn't. You'll never make it through your first resonance point without current feedback, and a good stepper driver can easily go into very large multiples of that frequency.

Then there is microstepping.

> Most hobby machines don't have enough rigidity or spindle power to require more than a few pounds of lateral cutting force.

This is true, but a different problem.

[PragmaticPulp]

I think you’re approaching this discussion from a commercial/industrial scale.

Hobbyist CNC machines simply don’t have the same issues as large commercial-grade CNC mills. None of the popular hobby CNCs use closed loop motor control. Skipped steps are simply not an issue at this scale.