What tooling required?

[j.steensen]

Thinking about starting down this road with a kit and plans....but before I invest the money, I have a few questions:

1) Is any specialized tooling required?
2) Is this machine capable of cutting .080 6061-T6 sheet and drilling .25" sq 6061-T6 stock?
3) Is this machine capable of 3D routing (IE sign-making)?
4) What stepper motor sizes do the plans call for? (I have several NEMA 34 motors laying about.)
5) Ball screw or rack and pinon?

[hazardouschurch]

Its the same thing for all new machinesb ut you should do what will fit your needs. I was going down this road 6 months ago and i found that for my need and my particular skills" metalworking" building a router table from plans was not my cup of tea. I had already cut most of the parts and stuff out and spent a lot of time trying to make it out of mdf to decide to switch to steel. granted no harm done because the mdf was free but still a lot of time.
1) Build it to your needs if you have some nema 34s laying around use them for aluminum i would sugest starting with steel and bypassing wood.
2) Any machine is 3d capable but it depends how much you want to spend on software to get it good. the machine is the cheap part the software will cost an arm and a leg.
3) rack and pinion is faster ball screw more accurate

Also what machine is this i clicked on the link for new posts?
never mind its joe i found the thingy that tells you where you are.
The info still applies though and also welcome to the first step to an expensive hobby
Hazard