CNC problem and finger trouble

Bizarrely for an engineer perhaps, I resisted getting involved in CAD for many years although I can claim this was due to being primarily an electronics engineer. I messed about with Autocad 9 and 11 back in the early 1980s but then gave it up as a bad job. I later dabbled with Alibre around 2010 but it was only in 2012 that I started to look into it more seriously. I got into Solid Edge, then Solidworks, then Onshape and finally Fusion 360. I'm strongest in Solidworks and Fusion 360 but my focus has moved to the latter due to my concerns about investing any more of my time in a product I'm not prepared to pay for out of my own pocket (namely Solidworks). Not certain quite how it happened but in 2013 I started thinking about CNC machining. This may have been partly triggered by my experiences with an Ultimaker2 3D printer. It got me designing a CNC conversion for my Taiwanese Bridgeport clone milling machine. By the time we left Canada, I'd acquired or made perhaps 80% of the components and was looking forward to getting them completed once the workshop was up and running again.

Finger trouble (September 2016):

I don't recall the exact circumstances but I "found myself looking at used CNC milling machines" on ebay one day. Probably trying to understand what would be the cost and condition of a well-used industrial machine. Rather than converting a manual machine to CNC, it might be better to rennovate or update an old but "proper" CNC machine that was actually designed and built that way to start with. However, most of the examples on ebay seem to be fully clapped out and barely worth scrap prices, yet would require years of effort and loads of investment to get into a sensible shape. A bit of good luck would be helpful.

I saw a rather interesting machine listed at £2350. Ancient looking (ie obsolete) controller, good quality Japanese machine, not a million miles away and out of reach of most hobby users due to its bulk and mass (almost 3 tonnes). It didn't sell for the asking price, so I got in touch. I suggested a figure of £1000 might be more realistic and agreed to go and see it in the flesh. After 2 visits I finally agreed to buy it although at the time I had nowhere to put it. So it sat there under a large tarp in the yard just outside Nottingham for another 2 months until the concrete pad was finished.