The way i see things, so its not a waste of money, is to make the gantry right and also the Z. So if you get into it, you will have good components for upgrade.

Go find 2-3 meters of steel profile 200x100 or sth similar and make gantry portal from 1 beam. You will need ~2m for the gantry and could use the rest for gantry legs. The other way to go is from aluminum profile but anyway you have to reinforce it with steel plate, so first option is cheaper.


As for movement, you will need ball 2510 ball screw to move the gantry and rotating ball nut, but as thats out of question here, better go with rack and pinion. 1610 ball screw for Z left right and 1605 for Z up down.


You could incorporate also 2 flat steel bars or simple frame so gantry moves on steel. Say if you buy 6m of gantry profile, you could use all that and have much more better machine, even if rest is MDF. We are talking ~50-100euro here. not 1000.

So hope still is not lost.