I'm an ex Mach3 and current Mach4 user. The difference between Mach3 and 4 is night an day. I use both Fusion 360 and Vectric Aspire for my CAD/CAM. If you are up to speed on Fusion, your golden. If not, you have a learning curve ahead of you. I haven't checked lately to see if Fusion has added a Mach4 post. Lately, I've been using Aspire. If not, use the Mach3 post. it works fine.

For the kind of work you describe, a Vectric product (V-Carve Pro, or Aspire) may be a better bet than Fusion (even though Fusion is free for the hobby version). Fusion is great for a lot of things, but not great for V-carve - at least it wasn't last time I tried. Sign work (V-carve, raised letters, artwork, etc) is where Vectric really shines. There's a learning curve, but not too steep. Many great tutorial videos online. Vectric is also good for inlay work, which is something you mentioned.

If you decide to go with Vectric, Aspire's claim to fame is 3d work. V-carve Pro will import one 3d image, and that's it. Aspire allow importation of multiple images, and allows you to create 3d images for carving. Also, Aspire comes with a whole lot of 3d artwork, which is nice. You can download trials of both. They are fully functional, except you cannot download the cut files.

Since you mentioned furniture, I suggest you consider a program called JointCam. It is designed to cut dovetails, box joints, and mortises and tenons. To use it on an Avid 4 x 4, you will need to modify your build by setting the front rail back a few inches to allow you to cut vertically off the front end of the machine, or you will need to cut a hole in the spoilboard. The set back is no big thing, except you reduce your Y axis cut envelope by the amount of your setback. Cutting off the front is a whole lot easier. Look at ger21's post above, He is the designer and has a link to it at the bottom of his post.

My 4 x 4 is of my own design, but I am using the same steppers (NEMA 34) and the Z axis they sell. They are very nice.

Here are photos of the jig I built for dovetails, etc I built for my machine. I can cut from both the left and right sides. It's a takeoff from the Leigh D4R Pro.





Finally, here is a link to my build thread. It contains useful information about building with 80/20 extrusions, including all the milling I found necessary.

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/diy-c...machinist.html

Gary