Indeed. Thanks for the link to the DIY setup. A few years ago, I would have been super excited about building one like this myself even if it takes a month of tinkering to get it to do what I want. Now with two kids and _life_ the way it is, my 5 hours on Saturday is precious. I need to choose between building tooling versus building the thing I want.. As much as I resist, I’m probably the target audience for companies like Shapeoko. I just can’t pull myself over the wall to spend three thousand plus Euros on a thing that will get used on weekends in my hobby workshop :-( If it was about a thousand euros, I’d have found a way to justify it..

I see all the caveats about the lasers and also the nasty fumes they make me deal with - hence the desire to go with a mill - a known devil to me.

Also, I work most of the time with Hardwoods and CNC mill is more appropriate for the task than the laser regardless of power.

I’ll keep a look out in marktplaats for any used CNC mills. I hadn’t thought of that.