Just wandered into the world of CNC!

[Andrewg]

Sounds like you have sussed alot of the challenges!

Try Carbide Create from Carbide 3D, free to download from their site and runs on Apples. It is the software they supply with their Shapeoko, so plenty of support on the Shapeoko Forum and designed to knock out GCode for grbl.

Hang around here too long amd your ambition and budgets will scale considerably.

[MikeInDevon]

Thanks Andrew, I'll give Carbide Create a go and see if I can get somewhere with it. All I've managed to do so far is to rout out a few shapes and a some signage, all of which came either from the native CAM programs or via Inkscape but everything seems a bit hit and miss at the moment!

You're right about the ambition and budget thing, I'm already thinking about upgrades and MkII etc, but don't tell my Mrs!