It's not all doom and gloom at all, I appreciate the honest replies and is why I'm here. I don't want this machine building yesterday, sure it's going to take time, I'm not in a major rush but would like It to be complete in 6 - 12 months. It will take as long as it takes, any sooner the better, this is a side venture/ hobby and the time will give me the chance to research more and work on my CAD.

This is all sound advice, I won't be purchasing anything until until I have a fully itemised bill of materials, and like you say that will come once I have worked out a suitable design Clive. I've tried attaching photos to the posts I'm sending, but it says failed to upload.

It seems like The first and maybe most important things to consider are the strength and accuracy of all parts. The two companies I have in mind, I know someone who builds conveyors at one, and i know the owner of the other one. The other company manufactures all sorts of precision parts. There's no doubt in my mind that both of them will be able to achieve the accuracy, they both have decades of fabrication experience each. It's like jazz said though they are always busy so it'll be a case of finalising a design first, then fitting in the welding and fabrication around what they've got going on when I'm ready.

I thought first of all i'd draw a rough idea, get the structure looking solid for the bed, base and gantry before I go into any of the finer detail stuff. Then from there we can look at motors etc. I will look again at posting some pictures.

If it can't be done for that price, how much is more realistic Jazz? There's a few machines this kind of size on eBay for 7.5-11.5k with some offering training. I figure if they can sell them for that surely I can build one for less (hopefully, that's usually the case when you DIY as much you can) with the right kind of guidance and outside expertise. Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about? But that's why I'm here.

This thread as much as anything will serve as a reference for me so I can have everything I need in one place. Any links and information are much appreciated, I'm keen to learn as much as I can from the experts here and am not expecting things to happen over night.

Cheers guys for the comments, you've given me a lot to think about.