Well I just finished refurbing a Spectralight 0200 mill. I didn't have to put one dollar into it but there was a great deal of work involved. It got dropped, quite literally on it's head. The connecter for the Z-axis stepper was bashed beyond recognition and the Z-axis stepper mount was tweaked from the fall.
Once that was fixed and I had motion on all axes I started to tear her down for cleaning/maintenance. There was, no joke, about .375" backlash in the Y-axis from the drive collar doohickey being improperly installed. There was about .100" backlash in the X-axis which sucked up at least 1/2 the total invested repair time. It's great that the X-axis leadscrew is beneath the bed protecting it from chips etc. but holy cow, what an unbearable cuss that thing is to adjust.
Total cost from taking posession to first cut: $0. Okay, I DID have to buy a chuck key so $4.
Now to figure out what the hell I am doing with it...