Well I was looking at using steppers and after some thinking I think that I would be much happier with servos. My question is, is there any ready made kits out there with servos, controllers, and encoders? Any thoughts on Camtronics? I would like to use geckos because everyone swears by them but as far as breakout boards and whatever else I'm going to need to control this I'm kinda in the dark once again.

I'm just as much a newbie as you, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I chose servos because there is less chance of an error ruining a long run. I also wanted something pretty powerful for not to much money and found a good deal on them (but they are large and heavy). I think it is a good idea to always buy servos with an encoder on them. I wouldn't bother with them otherwise.
I'm going to use Rutex controllers instead of Gecko's because they look like they have more bells and whisltes and less wiring. The Rutex controllers are made to use servo's.
I haven't seen too many kits that include the motors, controllers, etc...the few I have seen are really for smaller machines than I'm building so I never paid much attention.

I've been looking at the camtronics setup but it's still a little expensive for me. Right now I'm looking at going with the 600 oz/in servos with encoders direct connect to lead screws (yeah seems like it's too much power but I'm of the Tim Taylor school, if I'm going to run into something might as well do it hard), going with the geckos probably the g320s (it's late not sure if thats correct) The only thing that I'm worrying about right now is the breakout board and the connection to the computer via parallel port. I've got some plans started tonight for the machine, try and post them sometime this week when they look a little cleaner. Trying to get a working area of 36" by 48" with a 8" Z axis. I'm going to go with 1" dia hardened rod with bronze bushings for cost on the linear slides. probably put some kind of lubrication system on them with scrapers to keep dust from getting in between the bronze and the rod. Does anyone know where to get the cat track cable guide suff for a reasonable price in the northwest?

http://cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2330