Single 555 and transistor to drive a stepper?

I came across this:

https://www.wzmicro.com/1compdrv.htm

I dont have any particular use for it right now, however I have built a precision speed control circuit for a dc motor in the past (adapted from roman blacks project), I was thinking maybe this idea using a phase shift cap would be great with a 555, or a 4060 with xtal osc for very simple precision motor speed control.
I've done this wth small 440v 3phase motors before, but never a stepper.

Not sure what you mean, but a look at the L298 data sheet will show a simple example of driving a stepper motor. The windings need to be driven in a particular pulse sequence, not phase difference.

The L297 datasheet is worth a look, too.

My guess is:

• You will only be able to make it run within a very narrow frequency window. That is - if you are able to manually get the motor shaft spinning at the target speed.
  
• You won't get it to run from zeero speed.
• The motor will continue to run only if there is no load at the shaft.

I'm familiar with the l298 I have used it before with pic micro's to drive steppers, the thing I liked about the idea was being able to get a stepper to run from a single power source.

Surely if the motor gets the correct voltage and has 90 degree phases it will run up to its full load.

However starting as pointed out might be an issue, loading on the motor from a zero start might mess up the phase shift causing an allready loaded motor to have less that odeal 90 degree phase shift.