El Beast - Initial design phase, comments and critique welcomed!

[Edward]

Now that I can see where you've placed the motor mount, it gives an idea of the total height allowed from the nut to the base.

This is the one thing where I have agonised when messing about with my design. It's difficult to see in yours because the pic is not head on, but it looks like the spindle nut base falls about parallel to the edge of the extending plate, maybe slightly lower. One thing that I am sure you have thought about is that the clearance of the sliding plate is above the holding clamps for the part, in cases when you are cutting something deep using the full flute length, you don't want the sliding plate to touch the clamps.

Edward