Quote Originally Posted by Julie View Post
I'd like to leap in the deep end and go for a full 4' by 8' working area. In order to be able to undertake reasonably heavy work in either soft- or hard-wood, I imagine I should be thinking in terms of a router spindle of around 2kW.
Excellent, another Sussexite and one who thinks big
The cheapest way to track it will be round, supported rail. Driving it will be fun, as will keeping the 4' gantry running square. Stepper motors are cheap but there is always a trade off between accuracy and speed when you go large size. Servo motors could be the way to go. You don't want to wait 5 minutes while it goes end to end. You don't want to rely on fine microstepping to do fine detail.

Maybe allow for a vacuum bed in the design but start by using a crummy adhesive such as the humble Pritt stick while you get a feel for the problem.

Do you have a specific item for cutting in mind? Suggest you post preliminary design sketches here and see if you get a big thumbs up or howls of anguish :whistling: