Right now I want a G0602 lathe, and probably an X3-pattern mill, although getting either out here in the boonies will be a challenge, no doubt. I should explain a little bit of my thinking about the electronics:
The idea with a G-Rex, servos, and ballscrews was to go for (ethernet rather than parallel port) performance and expandability to a 4th and eventually 5th axis for the mill, and an ATC or live tooling for the lathe. Maybe even a drive servo for the spindle for turning polygons...
If was to go with steppers and leadscrews, the machine would be slower, but it would be substantially cheaper. If I did that then I'd simply build a PC for each of them, they're dirt-cheap these days. I know I could mix and match (servos for leadscrews, etc.) but I'd prefer to either spend the money on a balanced set of high-performance parts, or on a set of lower-cost parts rather than end up with an inefficient hodgepodge.
I read a thread in the yahoo gecko group to the effect that the G-Rex won't be developed any further. If this is the case then making a part looks like this, I think:
Some manner of CAD app (possibly T-Flex) eventually,
OneCNC for basic CAD and CAM (eventually, and before I bother with T-Flex),
Mach3,
Possibly a Smoothstepper to get away from parallel port timing limitations (worth it?),
Drives,
Motors,
Leadscrews/Ballscrews.
My overall intention is here is to gain the capability to make useful parts. I enjoy the idea of putting things (i.e. the retrofit kit) together myself, and I am inspired by all the mods and special tools people have come up with, but at the end of the day I want a reliable means of going from an idea to a part. I don't mind spending the time and money to get the right parts, but I want to start from a properly tuned machine and work out from there.
For instance, if I have the choice between lead and ballscrews, then I'd get ballscrews; might as well make it the best it can be the first time. Ditto the servos, if it is a matter of choosing from Gecko's catalog. After that, Mach3 is good (and cheap) enough that I don't have to think about that one, although I won't buy it until I try EMC2.
So I think I'm getting closer to a plan that looks like this:
Get the mill & lathe first, probably at the same time if I have to drive a day and a half each way to get them.
Then a basically useful set of workholding tools, cutters, measuring tools, etc. After that, start on the CNC parts. I'm ok with buying a kit (CNCFusion's for instance) because any money I'd save in buying parts individually I'd burn up probably twice over on shipping and fees. (
!)
I've got some time to plan this properly, and I know enough to know that I don't know nearly enough yet!
Jim