design choices when the budget will not stretch?

[MATT]

Here's a topical but tricky question for the illuminatti that keeps coming back in various guises:

Assuming the budget will not stretch to ALL of the following features, which one (or two) would you choose to compromise on?

Welded steel framed gantry
20mm alloy Z and Y axis
Water cooled 2.2kw spindle and VFD
M542 drivers
50v power supply
1610 ballscrews
20mm supported rail
variable height table

Unsure on how you budgeted for all the above items, but I need to ask how you intend to, or what you mean by variable height table.

I am also building one with a variable height table (large scale things don’t need as much rigidity, whereas steel does so tighten up the size and specs for cutting smaller steel parts).
Only now I am nearly finished it, I wish I had compromised on the space of the X axis and had a moving X table with a fixed YZ gantry that could be dismounted and adjusted up or down) instead of moving the whole fixed bed up and down. But sometimes you got to learn the hard way (I was told, but am always too stubborn, haha).

Have fun, and let us know how it goes, I will post my machine once the frame is welded.