Hi all,

Im a cnc programmer by trade who lives in the UK, done my time on the machines as well and now have sort of decided to bring my work home.. sad i know!

About a month ago now downloaded myself a Sieg X2 mill from Ebay and am very pleased with it, i have big plans for this little baby but not 100% on where to start regarding choice of stepper motors, driver boards and control boad etc.

My plans for the use of the mill will be mainly RC model car parts and anything else that i need to tackle with a mill, light to medium work so dont want to limit myself to much.

I have already got a Pc set up with Mach 3 and made myself a control panel which has been set up using Keygrabber and all has turned out well so far (thanks Hoss you have been a great help and inspiration in the world of home brew cnc!). So next up will be the electronis followed by the mechanical side of things.

I have read up a fair bit on what other people have done and decided that a Fusion 3 axis ballscrew kit might be the best and more successful approach, but not sure about the stepper motors, looking to be able to keep manual control so dual shaft Bipolar Nema 23's but what size 282 oz-in, 495 oz-in? Want good rapid speeds to plus potential for heavier jobs i.e dont want bottom of the range/thatl do jobbys!

Also looking for any advice on driver boards, control boards and powersupply to if anyone could help me? Planning on housing it all in a old Pc case so i should have plenty of room plus half the sockets and fixings will already be there. Already started collecting more switches, fans, plugs and sockets and not to forget a Emergency stop button to!!

Any help or advice on tried and tested or recommended parts available to me in the uk would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Darryll