Stepper Power Supply. Question about Voltage

Hello

I am just getting around to selecting some transformers to build
sparate little power supplies for Dan Mauch's 5 amp boards, and each
transformer is rated at 26 VAC, 5 amps. I plugged one in, and read it
at 29.2 VAC, which is fine by me.

Then I connected the bridge rectifier and got a surprise, which is a
reading of 26 VDC. I had not yet hooked up the 10,000uf, 50 VDC
capacitor. Because the VAC is supposed to be higher than the VAC (by
a factor of 1.41) I expected the DC voltage to be higher, around 35
to 39 VDC. Again, it might be important that I did not attach the big
cap yet.

So, what's going on? Will I notice a voltage increase when I add the
capacitor? Why is my DC voltage so low just taken right off the
rectifier, since it's only suppose to consume around 1.7V? Is the
transformer perhaps too small to supply proper voltage? And last,
these 521 oz-in motors that I got from Camtronics (and the circuit
boards) can run up to 40VDC, so am I simply going to operating slower
with somewhere around 25 to 30 VDC? Noticably slower?

Thanks, Tom.