Nice thread, From my own point of view, yes £350 is a huge amount of money. Maybe my own personal situation is clouding things. There must be other folks out there who are finding finances tight but they may think differently about finding a few hundred pounds.

If I was to be totally honest with myself, I should walk away from CNC and take up stamp collecting. However I have never given up on a challenge yet and I do not intend to start now!! I have something like £50 a month to finance my build so its going to take a while!!

I will say I was close to wrapping my hand in and calling it a day but there are a couple of guys here who have helped me make a start and unless they request anonymity I shall name them later.

As to the electrics ... somewhere on this forum was a post by a guy who has a 3 axis machine running on a board he has built himself and sells it ready made or in kit form for around £60 ( http://www.planet-cnc.com ) I do not know enough about controllers etc to pass judgement here. So I do not know if it would be of use.

There are plenty of plans on the web many of them using MDF and skate bearings etc but then they end up using threaded rod which seems to lead to more anguish than pleasure.

If you can come up with something that is ' cheap ', can produce acceptable results and can enable guys to 'learn' then go for it.

I for one will be watching developments.