Hello, I am new here and my problem is following: I have a few years old router Easy 440 made by German Eas Gmbh with their cad program Vector and controller nc-easy. I have been quite satisfied with the combo, and have used it for 2d and 2.5d parts when building my models.
However now I would like to upgrade my machine into 3d and add the 4th axis because I need some carvings for my ship models which are not very easy to make with hand tools.
People have used ArtCam and Mach3 for this kind of tasks, and I have seriously thought to utilize these programs.

But how to go further? Where to get mechanics for the 4th axis? And how to upgrade the controls of the machine? Or should I completely replace the control electronics? And do there exist any other programs that might be worth of considering? Being a retiree, the price of this upgrade is naturally important for me, so cheap hardware and free programs were the best options for me.