Chris / Neale, Thanks for your thoughts.

I know Chris is into solid body Telecaster guitars and having built similar using a hand router to cut pick-up slots, cable channels etc I can see where he's coming from on this. I build acoustic hollow bodied guitars (though I have hand carved front and back plates on a 17" archtop jazz guitar (https://milsomguitars.weebly.com/archtop.html)), so my need to carve out large quantities of material doesn't really exist.
I initially started looking at the Chinese 3020 / 3040 machines on *bay before I joined this group. What put me off was the comments high lighted again by Chris about how good/bad these machines can be. Then after joining I started reading some of the re-build threads on the Chinese machines...
Clive S pointed me towards Wal and seeing his self build in action made me think more about going on the self build route.

I'm currently researching materials (ali extrusions, lead screws, bearings, motors... etc) No money commited yet!!

Thanks again your points are noted and perhaps I will look again at the Chinese machines in a more informed light but I think the 6040 will be beyond my current budget especially if I have to factor in replacements before I really get going.
Cheers

Francis