Hi Matt,

Welcome! I'm pretty sure Patrick posted on this forum a couple of times a year or so ago.

I've not built that machine, but I have built an MDF router (mine has steel rails and carriages instead of alu, with 6 bearings per rail instead of 4). The point I want to make is that my total machine cost was £900, of which only £24 was the MDF structure. My "big ticket" costs were 1) electronics, 2) kress 1050, 3) steel, 4) leadscrews & bearings. Of course, this means that the majority of the investment is re-deployable on other projects, but if I did it again I'd probably go for plywood over MDF, and it wouldn't add much to the overall build cost.
Build log is here: http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/showth...andwich-router


Bottom line though, is build something, and enjoy it. You won't regret it, and whatever it is there'll be ways to improve....