[Leonardo]

I want to get in the wonderful world of CNC (as a hobby).

I would like to be able to carve Wood, Plexiglas, and also cut sheets of aluminum. Hopefully carve blocks of copper or aluminum too (to make my own water cooling blocks )

What is the least expensive way to get there and what exactly do I need?

thanks a lot!

[JDHill]

The number of different machines available is staggering. On the hobbyist end of the scale, companies like Sherline and Tormach offer machines of various sizes and capabilities. At the low end of the professional range, you will find companies like Haas, which offer (relatively speaking) economical small-envelope vertical machining centers. If you look in your Yellow Pages, you can find machinery liquidators who will have machines of various types constantly passing through their stock.

The first thing, really, is to define exactly what you want to do. Cutting sheets implies a machine with a relatively large envelope, like some offered by ShopBot. I wouldn't plan on cutting anything but wood with one of those though. People do whittle away on non-ferrous metals with the Sherline- and Tormach-types of machines, but those aren't generally configured for handling very large projects.

Additionally, there is CAM software. Several reasonably-priced options are available, for example, VisualMill, and MadCAM, which is a plugin for Rhino.

For more detailed info, you may find this site useful: http://www.cnczone.com

[yolk]

JD summed it up nicely. we have two cnc machines and use visualmill for the toolpaths for both.
if you want to machine blocks of aluminum and copper you need a rigid machine. routers (the ones with a gantry) won't work well for this type of machining unless you have a huge fucker that weights 2 tons.

it really depends on your budget. for anything half usable you'll spend at least 10-12k. a conversion might come cheaper and cnczone is the right place to get some help.

if it's just for fun you might have a look at the small 4-6k desktop routers on ebay