Mike since your looking into milling I thought I’d give my past experiences.
I have just recently completed building a mill myself. Its a converted X3 mill. Mill from grizzly not sure of the model number but I can find it out if need be. I useded gecko drives and the ethernet controller. I just finished so I havnt cut anything as I still am installing limit switches. But I did put a pen in and have done 2d drawings of various shapes. They came out pretty good but still have some tweaking to do.
I would say the sherline is good for lighter/smaller jobs. I went with the x3 since the thing weights like 300lbs and just seemed beefier. I modeled my build off of other people experiences from cnczone. There is a great thread that explains the whole proccess. In all I think the cost was around $3000 -3500. Now that only includes the cost of the machine/contoller and the parts for the conversion and some custom parts I made my self. If I were to do it all over I would spend the extra money and just have bought a premade ready to go machine. It came out to a lot more work than I intended.
But even after saying that my next project is to take one of the spare bridgeports at the shop and convert it to a cnc. I like the challenge.
I dont have pictures but I can take some and post if any one wants to see.
I am seriously looking at the Syil X2 or X3, not sure which. I am leaning to the X3 because it would allow me to grow in to the extra abilities this machine has to offer. It is very expensive but so is any kind of hobby This is a long term goal so I wont have it any time real soon but Its on my “to get” list anyway.
I have been doing other things to help prepare for my mill such as spend hours trying demo CAD programs and several Cam Software as well. I like ViaCad the best since it provides the most flexible intuitive interface of them all.
Here are a few screenshots of test designs for practice getting used to the interface. My goal is to design and machine a variety of robot “skulls”
I really love Alibre’s clean professional look and especially love the dimension tools and part assembly feature where you can snap parts to other parts. I found it very difficult to model free form objects though. I’m sure it is easy once you know how to use the tools but without any tutorials, I could not get past making a cube with holes in it. I might give it a try later but for now Viacad is exactly what I was looking for. It allows me the freedom to shape my models quickly and easily.
I have the free version of Alibre and the video I found disappointing and choppy with not enough tutorials. I need to be able to model irregular shapes with ease.
I have made a video showing a simulation of my model being machined from a block of material. I downloaded OneCNC Cad/Cam software and imported my bothead model and configured a rough machine tool path.
The tool bit used is a 10mm ball mill.
The video is a bit long, around 2min. 44sec. but I added background music to spice it up a bit. There are a few segments where the image flickers, this is from the screen capture software when I had to restart the capture process.
You might not want to do all of your milling with a ball head, because they are really only designed as finising cutters.
Rough a chunky kinda head with a straight 2 flute cutter first, and save the wear on the ball head. There are also some funky forces going on with a long ball head end mill.
I have been practicing using ViaCad playing around with designs. Here is a pic of a trial torso. I took today and tomorrow off of work, so I get to play all day long.
I will redo the torso to allow for servos to mount inside. What I need to do is build around the servos. I can do this by modeling a servo case; basically just a box with the shaft and servo horn and mounting tabs. Next would be to position the servos in the desired places from each other, and design the torso around them.
Rather than wait to get my own milling machine, I think I will just design the parts and pay my friend to machine it.
Step one is to have another head machined but this time with LED Holes in the eye sockets so I can mount two red LEDs in there. Then I plan to get a Brat to experiment with motion control (I’m way behind in this area) and eventually progress to a full custom setup.
I will build a SES Brat first to experiment with Seq. moves. Then I will use theses experiences to help me design something new.
I thought about body covers over SES brackets, but I am thinking more of a chassis system. My vision is to create a chassis design that will allow the viewer to see the servos and wire routings in various areas. Best way to explain it is the Terminator T800 Endoskeleton (my inspiration). I will also need high power servos to handle the increased weight.
The chassis will be two pieces, a front half and a rear half bolted together with #4-40 screws in key areas. Arms and leg pieces will utilize dual brackets that are mirror images of each other assembled with standoffs the length equal to the height of a servo. I have not really decided how I want to design the arms yet, I am going to focus on the torso till I get it right before moving to the design of the limbs.
I have been playing around with RoboRealm’s software using the Lynxmotion SSC-32 Servo Controller Module, and decided to make a quick video demo.
My Aluminum “skull” is mounted on a Futaba servo held by vice grips. I am using my old outdated webcam for the video input. I did not spend to much time with the video processing, I just wanted to get quick feel for how it works.
This is a long term goal so I wont have it any time real soon but Its on my “to get” list anyway. 
Please tell me these will be available to well…us 
