In the UK epoxy isn't a cheap material and larger section steel would probably beat it on cost.Unlike Doddy,I used LinuxCNC for my home made router and found it fairly painless,but then I have had a version of Linux on at least one computer since 2006.Any control system is going to need you to assign functions to connections on breakout boards or similar.If you wanted to be a bit more adventurous with the CAD/CAM side of things there is a Mac version of Freecad and it comes with a variety of post processors which can be used with the Path workbench to generate the Gcode for the machine.It isn't the most intuitive system and the documentation doesn't move forward as fast as the capabilities.This youtube video shows a little of what can be achieved and at zero financial cost. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWFC17MIfOE