Production grade CNC router Vs Homebuilt CNC router advice

[routercnc]

No probs, like I said it does look good

Cheers for the info regarding the screws. What sort of feed rate and depth do you use for timber at the moment? Im thinking along the lines of Birch Plywood...

In terms of beefing up the gantry, would 100 x 100mm suffice do you think or would I be better seeing if I could get a box steel frame welded together

Forgive the ignorance, what do you mean raised x style machine?

I haven't cut timber for a long time now - been cutting aluminium parts for 6-12 months, but from memory cutting depth probably ~3 - 6 mm and feed rates ~1000 - 1200 mm/min (limited by 1605 ballscrews and analogue drivers). This is a bit slow for wood but worked OK and I was only doing bits and pieces / small one offs.

I don't want to prescribe a specific gantry size until you have sketched something and have decided on gantry span, but 80x80 aluminium single profile is too small for 1200/2400mm wide, and 100x100 profile is also a bit on the small side in my view.

Raised X axis means that the longest X axis rail is supported up at gantry level by structural members which are part of the bed. It can therefore be made very rigid. The gantry is then a simple beam which rides on this. Couple of examples:
(Clive)

(Toomast)

Opposite of this is where the X axis is level with the bed and the gantry then has to be supported by drop down sides. Although these drop down cantilevers introduce some loss of stiffness, they can still be plenty stiff enough and allow 'all round' access to the bed for big sheets. Good examples posted by Jazz/Dean: