Hi all,

I'm a member over at eevblog.com forums and there was some discussion about homebrew pick and place machines, when I asked about a cheapy cnc frame/xy gantry kit this forum was mentioned, so here I am!

What I need is a simple x/y system with fully moveable axes - i.e. the system can't be based on a moving work piece, as the components to be picked won't be able to move with it. The whole assembly needs to be able to reach the components location(along one or more sides of the machine). I hope that makes sense. My budget for at least an X/Y system is about £300. With added things like motors I will extend the budget but for just the X/Y I don't want to spend too much.

So I was looking at either this system I found on ebay: NEW 3020 DESKTOP ROUTER ENGRAVER DRILLING/MILLING ENGRAVING MACHINE CNC h3 | eBay

or making my own system from scratch. I would prefer to start from scratch, in a way, but I don't really have any metalworking tools. So I would need to have the pieces made after I designed them. So, three questions for you lovely people:

1. Buy and hack, or build from scratch, bearing in mind my lack of tools?
2. If buy and hack, what do you think of the ebay item above? What sort of accuracy would I be expecting from such a machine?
3. If build from scratch, are there many companies that will cnc some metal parts from say, gerber files I have created?

Cheers!