A few thoughts from a fellow newcomer that may help...

Although I have yet to buy most components, there have been that many positive posts about Chai at linearmotionbearings2008 that I will feel more than comfortable dealing with him. As Martin54 mentioned, he will put together a package to suit your needs at a good price, but you need to be clear on your design first... And email him and buy outside of eBay at a better price.

Similarly, Gary at Zapp Automation seems to be the favoured go-to UK supplier, offering great local support, and I will be using him particularly for many of the electronics components.

As a woodworker too, I have chosen to size my machine to have a working area that can handle a quarter sized sheet 1220x610, that could potentially in the future be resized to 1220x1220 or 1220x2440 vertically.

One of the forum gurus recommended to me that the Z-axis have a minimum travel of about 200mm purely to limit the potential for being stymied by longer tool lengths.

There are peeps on the forum who are willing to assist in the machining of bespoke aluminium parts at a reasonable price.

Btw, I wish I had a missus offering to fund my build ;-)