I started the process of building a machine a long time ago. At this point it's more of a principal build, in fact I don't even have anything to cut, but I feel like the build beat me before I even started...so here we are.
I'm about 95% complete mechanically, and I'm working on controls now. I'm trying to utilize some stepper motors and drives from Automation Direct. The part that is holding me up now is a break out board, and cnc software.
Mach3 seems like an obvious answer, and I do like the way it looks, I just haven't got it in my budget at this time of year. Any other open source suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
And for break out boards, cnc4pc seems to offer a lot of different combinations that would be very expandable in the future...again, budget this close to christmas for a project like this is just hard to justify.