well I got to thinking, there is no higher quality motor then a hard drive motor, and maybe... if you take laptop hard drives apart, the mechanical ones, they are quite small and maybe it would be enough to just use hard drives that are next to each other on a plane, with a hacked in control system. You can probobly cut parts of it off to make it a square rather then a rectangle too.
Maybe thats a good direct solution to the motors that covers cost, and how to control one is established on line already.
I cut up a old hard drive to put a 2.5 inch drive in a 3.5 inch bay without having to buy an adapter, maybe old drives can be had for cheap, the motor is similar in all of them I think. I think you can also modify the hard drive so that you can fit it on pins like a module that fits on a card (new keysight stuff does this, they stopped using 'cards' for some things, and instead have boxes that lay down on the PCB, and mate with it using pins, much like a big ass IGBT. So its more like a container ship then a computer motherboard. The get laid in right on top, not slid into slots or cages or anything like old school mainframes. There is nothing to bend or damage or deform save for the pins, so structural damage is not an issue, but I am going to assume its done because its cheaper and easier, I don't think it is as good as a reinforced slot to feed a module (i.e. hp70000). I can also see it damaging stuff it seizes or welds itself, since you are yanking directly against fiberglass, no matter how many screws you use.. its just not gonna beat a metal frame with a connector that you can use a crow bar on............. but good enough for this ! I know when you beat up slotted equipment you need to be pretty good with sheet metal and bending and shit to fix that problem.. most lab people would probobly hurt themselves dealing with a mangled mainframe lol