HawkJET:
I was composing my response during the time you posted, so did not get to read it till afterwards. Composing the response took more than an hour, as I was also still doing other things. Went to bed afterwards, it was 1:00 AM., only to get a notice of your (irritated) reply in the morning. No offense meant there. Appology accepted.
I was originally trying to help out jonesturf by pointing him in a direction that would give the performance he was looking for without sending him (or others) in circles spending money on stuff that wasn't going to meet the desires. I've been at this for more than 30 years, on and off, learn't a few lessons along the way that cost me. When you threw a few statements into the mix (with good intent) that did not make much technical sense, I tried to lay out the facts and experience I'd gathered along the way to educate anybody who would take the time to absorb it for their benefit. Hopefully somebody somewhere other than ourselves gained a bit of needed insight out of this exchange to move their projects along.
Essentially for hobbists on a shoestring budget, they are left to choose between converting light imported manual mills, or old industial grade iron like the stepper driven BOSS mills. The better value (monetarily) is in the old iron if you have the space for it. Starting with a manual bridgeport type machine is the expensive route. There is enough info available on modifying the light imported stuff, but blowing up Gecko's and similar hardware, or buying new motors in the hope of making things better does not come cheap as you begin to tackle modernizing an old industrial machine. If you make all the right choices the first time around, $1000 should cover drives, breakout boards, switches, accessories and a used computer + software. But most people make ill informed choices and end up with a piece of machinery that performs inferior to the stock setup, vibrates, etc.. Then some end up talking trash about any Bridgeport BOSS that isn't yet running servo drives, for they didn't have success until taking this route. Sure they are better, but you can't realistically get there on a $1000 budget for everything. If you find one of these servo units with working drives, and can get it for the price of a stepper driven mill, then the additional $1000 for new controls and the rest of the things you will need might get you there, but the learning curve for beginners is just so much steeper and intimidating. Don't get me wrong, I also own top end servo hardware and it is great, but in a different price / complexity range.
Passing this info along was (and still is) my motivation.