[ynneb]

Its hard to advise, since we dont know what you want to do.
Knowing the size of what you want to make is important.
Knowing the accuracy you are willing to bear will detemine what components you need.
Having a budget in mind is essential, unless you are looking to do it over a long time, as money comes in.
Knowing these things will help.

Reading what others have done will help you descide too.

Somtimes it just takes starting a project, even if along the way you find you are going in the wrong direction and have wasted some time and money.

Nono, 2 months ago I had never heard of a CNC before. I am amazed at how far my machine has come in such a short time.
For me it was just reading what others had done and selecting what to copy from them.

The other idea is to just buy plans from those who are selling them in this forum. That would give you a great head start, although maybe not as much a sense of satisfaction.

Here is a picture of my machine taken today. This is designed from different machines that are displayed on this site and others.
I have designed on the go acording to parts availability and price.