Sorry John, been a bit busy this week and not had chance to call in. I did pick up a packet of Hobnobs but ate them on the way to Anglesey yesterday. Don't worry though, Tesco's have plenty more...

Had a good chat with John today on the phone about this project and as usual he has come up with quite few interesting idea's, mainly to help keep the cost down and still produce a reasonable quality machine. I will be looking into these a bit more over the next week before I go any further with the design as sourcing the right components at the right price can sometimes be a pain in the arse, but I am on it...

Wobbly, I hear what you are saying regarding the cost of the drivers and we may be able to come up with another option to reduce the price. They may not have all features or be of the same quality as the ones which you can get from Zapp or DIYCNC but they may work well as a starting point. Not promising anything at this stage but watch this space...

Just off down to B & Q to do a bit of component sourcing.

Quick question - what size bed / work area do you think would be acceptable, I was thinking that a bed of 400 x 300 would be ok but I am open to suggestions. We don't want to go too big though as that could create more problems and start pushing the price up.