Making decisions about my first CNC

[Neale]

I would say that you have the skills to build a decent machine. You have the big advantage of having an electronics background. On the whole, it's easier to pick up "mechanical" skills as you go than to pick up electronics skills although you may be a skilled machinist/welder. Trying to explain to someone the how and why of, say, an NPN open-collector output or ground loops is harder than how to level rails with epoxy or even basic welding! Just go for it - there's plenty of advice available on this forum.

[Boyan Silyavski]

Here and there you could do cheap. But if i were you, Nema 23 motors and profile rails like hiwin, new or used from ebay, these 2 are a must.
On such a small machine you actually need 4 rails, 2 left right, gantry, Z. Yeah, the Z will work ok with even 1 proper rail. With spindle 0.8kw i mean, no bigger.
Moving table and fixed gantry will even give further possibility to your build.

You could perfectly make the machine using belts without problem, though the 3 ball screws for that machine will be like 150. So not so much.

Having a drill is a must.

So if you are clever you could build a beauty on a budget. Spend more time designing and considering and less money wasted.

Don be shy from steel, cause thats the cheapest way to go. You will spend how much , 50-70 for the steel.

Better dont be in a rush, buy when you can and build slowly something that can make you money.

Or if you want your hair to be white soon, do a crappy machine that will make you swear every time you look at it.