CarveOne
No “Raucous laughter and criticisms” from my end, you are doing what I want to start later this month. I will be watching your build. Post lots of pictures.
I have been playing with the idea of building a cnc router that would give me at least a 4x6 cut area. Plan on using most of what Ahren's sells. He has plans to offer R&P sometime early this year so most likely go with it. My build will be slow as I can only afford to spend an average of $200-$250 a month at it.
8020 was my first choice but I soon hit $1700 for the major 8020 components alone. Ahren suggested pallet rack, or work bench. While looking on line for industrial work benches and pallet rack suppliers I came across a local unistrut dealer that carries all the components I would need for the base frame which makes it easy for me to walk in and buy what I need. I would still use 8020 for mounting the x and y rails if I used unistrut. Also found an example of an industrial workbench that may work.
Have quite a few metal fabrication shops within 10-15 miles of where I live so also plan on seeing what they would charge to weld up a table frame made out steel that could be taken apart in four sections.