Thank you JAZZ!!! Given me the slightest of hope that this may be possible after all, although...after reading the rest of your post i'm not sure if that was your intention

Just to confirm, when you say I have a very slim chance of pulling this off do you mean for building my dream steel router that pavlo had built in his build log or a smaller desktop router?

From what I understand the main cost for my first build will be the electronics (drivers, motors, PSU, spindle) as the materials and parts for the frame I can get for free or build myself (including roller carriages and ACME threaded rod). As you explained this will compromise the router quality and performance ability however, do you think this will still be "usable" for some wood carving work as long as I pay a huge amount of attention to detail?

The positive I see in trying this out (if there is any ) is that if worst comes to worst, I have myself a decent set of motors, drivers, PSU and spindle and a router which cost me nothing but time to build.

Will start working on Solidworks models but do you think I should also start looking into the electronics now? In the build log he has used 3.1nm steppers, do you think these will still be OK with additional frictional load of the roller carriages as you had explained?

Thanks