So, how to go on from here?

I anticipate that the actual build of the mechanical part is not all that difficult. The most work is to provide a proof of concept. Which in this case can be done by assembling the necessary electronics, steppers and software. Then when a 3-D design is made it can be translated to g-code and uploaded to the Arduino and it should drive the stepper motors. This can be done without the mechanics of the real CNC.

For a proof of concept, the I would need .

The banggood website seems to offer all I need for this at good prices. The Arduino, RAMPS, Drivers, stepper motors, and the power supply.

So this is what I will do next: Find out which parts to order, order those parts, assemble them and then provide the proof of concept. I think the total cost of this phase is less than 200 euro’s. Note that I won’t be cutting any parts yet. I simply want to see the steppers stepping such that I can then go to the next phase of actually building a (small prototype?) CNC.

The phase after that would be the construction of the CNC. Total cost can be quite low, but are strongly dependant on the size. Bigger is of course more expensive. Right now, it seems that another 300 euro’s could see me a decently sized CNC. Even if it is not quite as big as I would like. Even if I have to add another 100 or 200 euro for things like motor, tools etc, it should be possible to keep the total cost to about 700/800 euro’s. Which means -at least for now- a green light!