Thanks for the help. I had figured I needed the electronics first, so I would know how strong I must build the other parts to hold the weight of the motors and to rout whatever was possible with those motors.
I have now read "Three Dimensional Trimming and Machining" by Susnjara. I now know the common cnc router configurations, however am totally confused as to which axis is which due to a misprint between text and images on page 31, which caused me to skip the head configuration info since I have no idea to which axis he refers in those descriptions (and I know I'm building a 3 axis machine now, and I get the X,Y,Z part). I know much more than I did about stepping motors and servo motors, although the paper is more overview and theory than actual implementation instructions for the oblivious. I have read but don't really understand from the sparse pictures about the different tracks used on cnc machines. Read about holding the work and tooling, but got completely lost on determining accuracy.
After all is said and done about this paper, I now realize that there is much more I don't know than I ever imagined I didn't know. For any other newbies who have not read it, it is at
http://www.thermwood.com/ in the Books & Multimedia section. Reading it provides great insight and, I'm sure, saves years of head scratching, and it is free for the download (ain't the internet [and Mr. Susnjara] wonderful!).
I now know that I cannot afford servo motors, and am currently reading "Jones on Stepping Motor Types" at
http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/%7Ejones/step/ .
It is truly wonderful to have these resources online, both the papers for learning and the experienced people here on cnczone.com to answer questions and volunteer their expertise to walk the uninitiated through this experience.
Thank you for your help, Eric the Balsaman.
-- Zeno
PS. How the heck does this machine cost $25 euro? -->
http://www.cnczone.com/gallery/showp.../cat/505/page/