Quote Originally Posted by Chimestrike View Post

I do however have a mig welder and while out of practice I can weld to a level above 'pigeon shit' so should ok.

But any advice or direction you guy can offer would be greatly appreciated as we all know there is no replacement for experience :)
If you can weld just above "pigeon shit" then you're at the same level as me!!!

Advice is to go look at some of the builds here, knock up something in whatever CAD program you use (or learn to use, sketchup is what I started with) start a build thread and don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't buy anything (especially electrical items) before asking as although lots of the cheap "kits" of electronics seem like a good idea they're usually compromised in some way to get down to the price.

Whilst you'll be steered generally towards using linear profiled rails, high end controllers etc. by the good people on here you can do a decent hobbyist build for machining wood panels with supported round rails and cheaper BOB's etc.