Quote Originally Posted by Washout View Post
I can't help thinking that what is needed is not so much a spoon fed full design, but more a decision tree against desired design parameters e.g if you want machine with more than an 1100mm X axis then you need 1610 ballscrews to avoid whipping, if you want to cut aluminium (say up to 6082) then you need to make the frame from extrusions of XxYmm , steel section etc not MDF and so on

If I can find some time I could start the ball rolling, but I have limited knowledge myself,
Chris
I was thinking something similar.

What would also be good is if people that have recently finished their build or are currently designing/building a machine would not only do a build log but an 'after build debrief', so that you can compare the sketchup pics & photos of the machine to an actual rough bill of materials at the end (including tools used) and videos of a few standard cuts to see the real performance.

So for example if we come up with half a dozen test files doing a mayan calender in mdf, plunging into a piece of thick alu, a block of foam, cut out and engrave a piece of acrylic etc. If with have a few videos & photos & speed/time details of different machines doing the exact same jobs it would be much easier for people to form a realistic idea of what they need.