Hi I am from Hong Kong I build hobby cnc from Chinese kits.
Found mini atx motherboard with parallel port.
Stepper controller with tmc 2160 chip set and mos driver up to 4 A.

Linuxcnc under Debian 10 PREEMPT-RT kernel.
Native-Cam is connect to linuxcnc for using the cnc machine directly as drill press.
G-code generator Heekscad and Heekscnc complied from source from Github.
Freecad and Inkscape can produce G-code from DXF files.

Had a knee mill retrofit to cnc machine years ago see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZA8c5NLRTs

Like to discuss above and make friends around north London. I have family living there.