This post is (I Hope) for people to weigh-in on what components would make the best CNC MACHINING CENTER (VMC 20-40 amp motors) you can build and still fit in the garage. There are countless combination's of parts, controller cards, drives, encoders 200-2000ppr,servo motors, etc that you can use. The last factor I want to impose here is COST! Biggest Bang for the Buck! If something works just as good and costs less it wins. So let me guess the winners just to get things going:
I personally am ruling out AC Servo for bang for buck reasons and other items too since we are all on a budget but nobody wants junk when they are done.
Controller card- 1st- Mesa 5i20
2nd- Pico universal PWM
Drives- 1st- Servo Dynamics type that came with machine
2nd- Pico PWM amplifier
3rd- Larkin Viper 200 with Pico "Gecko Interface" card.
Encoders- 1st-1000ppr USDigital
2nd- What came on machine 500ppr.
Servo Motors- 1st- What cam on machine if good.
2nd- Used SEM, Baldor,etc you can find cheap.
This is all the high ticket parts I can come up with that will eat up your budget and I don't know that much about electronics to evaluate but I do know cnc milling and what happens if you choose poorly... .