Quote Originally Posted by Ross77 View Post
What's the best way to move this forward? create a spec list and work through it?
Pretty much.
Make a list of what you'd like to achieve, then work through the list of issues you need to deal with, and consider the pros/cons of whatever solutions you find.

Personally, my plan is an epoxy granite base, linear rails, gang/live tools, and a spindle cartridge.
I'm still trying to decide between a flat or a slant bed. Slant is far better for chip management, but it means I'll need to find/make a couple big precision wedges for machining the base.



Jazz, it's a small horizontal mill column, which would normally have a gearbox in the 'window'.