Hi all, I'm Mark. I know many of you have probably heard it all before, but I'm hoping to build a CNC router big enough to take full sheets of ply or MDF and be able to cut nested parts. I'm in the process of enlisting the help of a local engineering firm to take care of the welding and fabrication, they will just work off of my drawings, I'm waiting to hear back from them after today.

I have a few grand to spend, hoping to keep the costs down as much as possible but don't want to compromise on the design. It needs to be strong, last the test of time and also be fairly fast and accurate. This is a business venture so it needs to cock on, no way am i paying 10k plus, not that id mind if I had the money, if I can build one for a fraction of the cost.

I have some design ideas and have been working on a basic draft, mostly incorporating ideas I've seen (will post a couple of pics later, if necessary),
but thought it best really if I get the advice from the pros. I've spent hours (days) trawling the forums and have read some great and useful stuff, the only problem is I've forgotten half of it and the other half is buried somewhere in fragments throughout different pages.

FYI I am completely new to CNC, but have some experience coding and can draw (a little) in CAD. Can't be much different to building a computer, can it? Hardware and software.

I have a few questions...

What pitfalls do you foresee with a machine this size? (1220 x 2440 x 100mm working area).

The steel and aluminium costs I have covered, it's the cost of the rest of the hardware and software I'm not 100% sure of. Can anyone direct me to a kit or the parts I need?

If you had 2-3k (2) to spend and you needed a machine this size, how would you go about designing and building it? Materials and hardware etc. Can it be done?

If there's any relevant (completed) builds you know of please send me the link.

Thank you.