So in deciding between a V-Carve, a Shopoko or the mostly vaporware Onefinity, which looked interesting but has delivery dates going into 2021. Anyway, I did an oh WTF and just ordered a 6060 Pro, which um, yea I figured the others were training wheels and I should just cut to the chase because I know me and that's where it'd end up. I got the 6060, with an extended gantry and a 12/8" Z axis, NEMA 34 steppers, plus the 5th axis circuitry, figuring these are all the things, well first 4 anyway, you can't really redo easily later. It's all standard Avid electronics, plug and play controller, their motors, their spindle, frankly, deviating from that would have just turned this into a long winded project about the build and I'd be back to 2021 which I really made this decision to avoid going down the modification rabbit hole from the get go, something that was looking more and more inevitable with any of the hobby machines.
So now my training wheels are not so much some throw away, hacked up machine to get me going but something I can add capacity and functionality to. Any of the bench top hobby machines would have been inadequate for what I wanted to do almost immediately, since non-ferrous metals are high on the list of desirables, as is being able to mill grey cast iron, but baby steps, though pretty confident it's doable. Anyway what I ordered seems to give me all kinds of future options, rotary, plasma, extending the bed to, I guess, some ridiculous length, I think they said 64 feet. So my first post and I'm sure there'll be many more, I'm an engineer by profession and have worked with CAD since before the machines to run it on were practical for mere mortals, so I'm not all that intimidated by this, but it will be new to me. Oh also ordered it with a "special feature" that I'm sure will be interesting.