Quote Originally Posted by jimchelt View Post
Well, that's blown me right out of the water. If I go for the UCCNC option what are your recommendations for the hardware? I mainly work in wood and had been thinking about inlays, relief carving, photo carving etc. with maybe some small engraving on thin brass and/or aluminium. I cannot see that I will ever want to do any serious milling. I have made a few of Clayton Boyer's wooden clocks using my Diamond fretsaw and I would like to have a crack at using a CNC router to cut the cogs etc. To repeat, most of my work will be with various types of wood. So, any thoughts or advice will be most welcome before I commit myself. Thanks to you guys who have replied so far.
You mention engraving on thin brass and aluminium. This obviously isn't about hogging metal but my experience a long time ago with a Marchant Dice machine was that backlash, rigidity and frame strength will be your enemies here, particularly with the usual conical engraving bits - good engraving takes no prisoners and if the tool height above workpiece changes (in my old case - deflection on the unsupported X-rails) then the radius of the engraver cutter changes; backlash and rigidity will give you odd shapes when the tool path changes. Don't underestimate the challenges of engraving. My use-case was PCB routing - cutting through 35 microns of copper at a fixed depth is challenging (if the height varies, then so does the track widths, and artefacts around track corners can decimate the track).