Sounds practical to me.
If designing with 18" extension, the snout needs to be pointed.
Therefore you might want to design Z with interchangeable cutting devices.
Some of the guys here have purchased electric die grinders which have skinny barrels.
I am not convinced that a die grinder is good for everything, so I have also designed to allow for a beefy router.
I will probably use a beefy router for aluminium and hardwood and a die grinder for deep profiling.
I think its unlikely that I will need to do full extension work with hard materials, so the issue of flex becomes less of a problem (the harder the material, the bigger an issue flex becomes)
At least by having the two cutting tools, variable height table and big extension, I will have a very adaptable machine.
Have fun
Andy
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