Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan View Post
That could get expensive since surely you would need 2 sets of rails for the Y and Z axis', and 2 more ballscrews...

It would make an interesting machine to have 2 gantries running at the same time!
You could share the X axis rails and ballscrew - you'd just need to bolt the ballnut to the gantry you wanted to use. The plasma gantry would be relatively cheap to build as it doesn't need a powerful motor or high stiffness linear bearings.

One consideration would be choosing an X axis stepper that had the torque for routing and the speed for the plasma but you could always gear it and swap the sprockets over.