So, life got in the way, we had issues with a stream running through the garden causing flooding issues, and the short version is that eventually, the county council was "persuaded" that it had to be dealt with, and a scheme to pipe it into a new channel was approved at the start of 2016, with a timescale of 18 months. HA! They started near us in 2016, but didn't get started in our garden till 2019, and the supposed 18 months grew into over 5 years, so they eventually moved off site literally a couple of months ago, and for most of that time, the garage wasn't properly accessible, so my plans have been well and truly delayed, and now at last, I can start thinking about what to do.

10 years of change means that I'm now not sure what to do, I made the table, it's a very solid steel framed 8 x 4 table, but not done anything beyond that, and with how the technology is changing, I'm thinking more of an x y z table, with the option to change what's on the Z axis between things like a plasma cutter, or a router, or a laser cutter/engraver, possibly even variations on lasers, like diode and CO2, or other options, maybe even a high pressure water cutter, as it seems to me that all of these use pretty much the same movement concept, the only difference being the rigidity of the Z to resist bending, and the speed of movement, and what's under the device, and with how big the table is, I can have different areas of the table for what's needed under the "cutting" area, but it's then a case of deciding the speed and power of the stepper motors that would be needed to move the relevant parts at a suitable speed.

There's still work being done on the garage, the roof needed work, and the old up and over doors are being replaced, but to really crimp plans, as a result of a mishap with a hole saw at the weekend, I'm now not able to do much for a month, having cut a tendon in my thumb, so now, I'm in reasearch and plan mode for what to do once I can again use both hands, hence this post, I want to decide the best way forward to be able to do small scale engineering projects, the model flying side has had to be scaled back, as my friend has advanced Parkinsons, which has impacted his fine motor skills and mobility, so I'm going to be looking at things like small scale (SM32) steam garden railway, and related sorts of engineering, so nothing seriously heavy weight or size wise, and despite the passage of time, I'm still OK mobility wise, so hopefully, can achieve what I want to do.

So, a few pointers towards possible routes would help, Ireland is not great in terms of suppliers, even for basics like Aluminium extrusions, so I may have to use UK suppliers for some of the components, but I can get things delivered to family members, it's not a huge deal.

So, let's see where this goes, I'm motivated to get this moving again at last, after a huge delay with the works in the garden that massively disrupted our lives.

Thanks

Steve