Afternoon all,

As the title states i am a noob at this with what i guess is one of the most common Noob questions going :)

Some background first.

I am a Mech E/Designer with a good engineering background in everything from Military antenna to consumer electronics. Most of my time is on 3D CAE but i often escape back to the Bridgeport and colchester manual machines.

I am looking to build something for home projects and would like open source plans or similar as i cant afford the huge time resource needed to develop the kit from scratch.

I have the plan set for JoeCNC 2006 found on CNCzone but its too grand for what i want.

What i am after is the ability to machine aluminium on a bed no larger than 300 x 300 (12" X 12")

Anyone know of a set of plans that would suit?

I want to build from scratch as A) buying a Denford style mill is more expensive and B) half the fun is building something.

Budget restrictions at the moment (i say at the moment as i know once i start it will go out of the window) is approx £500 working, i have a laptop (mobile workstation capable of thrashing Solidworks). I am pretty good at scrounging so i would think the dearest parts will be the controller and motors (maybe servo and not stepper?)

First things first is the chassis/bed/framework.

Any help is grately appreciated ;)