Help please - What is Dad's CNC machine??

[Doddy]

Firstly - you have my sympathy (and I've been in similar situations far too many times recently... though never with the problem of finding a home for a router).

So, from first look, it certainly looks a home-brew flat-bed 2.5 axis extruded aluminium router with wooden bed. You're missing a spindle-motor (the thing that bolts onto the tall column that does the actual work of cutting or drilling), at least from the pictures provided. The design looks to be useful for low-speed, light cutting of things like MDF, Balsa or foam (do you know what he made with it?) - it could be very good for a radio-control aircraft enthusiast / model maker.

But, it is very much an enthusiast's machine, and you'd have to target the right buyer who would be prepared to take this on as a continuing project. Sold-as-seen, so to speak.

The value is very much what someone is prepared to pay for it - and machines like this rarely pay back the effort, time or money spent building them - they are worth the sum of the bits that are currently fitted. If I was trying to sell I'd be looking at sites like this or eBay, and simply advertise with all of the images you've provided there (if you can get more images around the long threaded rods - that's useful information) - give the overall machine dimensions (better to get a photo of the reading on a tape measure so people understand how/where you've measured - I'd simply go from the width, depth and if possible overall height and let the buyer determine what that's likely to mean in terms of actual work area. Be honest that you don't understand much about the machine and put it on under auction for someone to bid up an initial price. Invite (and welcome) inspections prior to bidding but be clear that (unless you know how) that you cannot demonstrate it working. That initial price is the hard bit - I'd suggest trying from £400 and see where it goes.