Hi guys,

I live in Newcastle. I've toyed with the idea of a CNC mill for years, but never done anything about it. I was impressed with what a friend of a friend's a cheap little kit was able to do and have decided to build something myself.

My thoughts are very preliminary so far. I don't actually have a specific product that I want to produce with this machine, it's more about making it.

Choice of linear motion:
I popped into a couple of the bearing suppliers in town, and it seems like I'm looking at ~4.50 per standard skate bearing. At that price I'd think it would be better to do this sort of bearings.
Is there a list of good suppliers? The list here is from 2004 and fairly useless.
Also popped in to Alspec aluminium, they only had quite simple extrusions, nothing to come close to 8020 sort of stuff. Is that available locally?

Ideally I'd like to end up with a machine that can handle plastics, aluminium and copper. Probably only need a work area of 300mm x 300mm x 50mm for that stuff, though if I'm building one that will only really handle wood and plastics I'd probably aim a fair bit bigger.

Tools on hand are drive, circular saw, small cheap drill press, cheap GMC router.
At my dads place in Blue Mountains I've got a metal lathe and mill, but I'm only down there for a day or two every few months.