Nice to find a UK based CNC forum. I put a CNC router kit together a few years back - very basic stuff with drawer slider rails for the Z axis and the X & Y running along steel tubes held on with 3 bearings per rail. The controller is a Xylotex 3 channel job with a home made power supply. Control is from EMC2 running on Ubuntu on a very old Pentium 3. For CAM work I mostly use VCarve pro, occasionally resorting to writing perl scripts to generate GCode or generating GCode from POVRay scenes. Mostly the machine does what I want but it has it's limitations which need to be respected to get a half decent job. It's main job has been to cut parts for various wooden clocks I've designed with a few forays into signs of various types.

I decided this year to treat myself to a new machine - something bigger, faster and capable of machining soft metals, maybe ferrous metals at a push. I struggled with my conscience over whether to build a machine from scratch, buy a kit or just plump for a ready made machine. Eventually I was overcome with sheer laziness, a disregard for my bank balance and put an order in for a new Heiz T-1000. No doubt someone will pop up and tell me what a total fool I've been and that the machines are made of plasticine or the German equivalent. Anyway the specs looked good and people that own them seem relatively happy with them so hopefully it will be OK. If it's not, I needn't worry too much since the wife will kill me so I won't live to regret it for very long.

Anyway, nice to find the forum and ... err ... hello!