Quote Originally Posted by oldmam4m80s View Post
I suppose this is just trying to shoot for the sky when a few mountains are in my way... I appreciate the reality check.
No it's the same has you shooting for the stars in a under ground bunker.!!

Pete is correct in thinking that I'm saying you don't have the experience or Knowledge to successfully achieve this goal. Now I'm not saying this to put you off but hopefully make you "Get Real".!

It's very possible to DIY build machines to work at those tolerances, I do it often on small machines. But it's all different ball game has the size increases and what you was aiming to do was or is massively unobtainable by someone of your limited knowledge and experience with very limited equipment.
Why do you think the likes of Tormach, which by the way is Toy in the real world of Engineering, have such small table and limited work area.? . . Yep because they can't hold the tolerances when size increases without massively over engineering the machine which then pushes the price up drastically.

My advise which I urge you take is to Buy some old Iron, like a Bridgeport and either retrofit to CNC or try to buy ready done. Retro fitting will serve few purposes.
1: It will teach you the needed aspects of the Electronics and mechanics for CNC.
2: You will learn fraction of what's required to build real machine and will open your eyes to what's really needed to build a large machine.
3: Provide as means for you to learn some engineering skills.
The Bridgeport is about has large working area you'll get and still hold decent tolerances without breaking the bank, up from this then your into serious money and VMC territory. There are many Retro fit Kits available in the States and plenty of people who have done so already to ask advise from.

Even if you don't retro fit it to CNC and keep it manual you'll can learn on it and if you do continue with DIY building then you'll need a decent milling machine.

The other option is to DIY build but on a much smaller scale with more realistic goals for someone with your limited Skills and knowledge.

So to re-Cap . . ."Get Real" . . .and Aim smaller.!!. . . . . . Sorry if this sounds abrupt but it's said with good intent.!!