Thought I'd share a recent build for an ongoing CNC milling machine project. The Mill needed a solid base as well as storage for the liquid coolant pump and oiler, and some drawers for tooling.
I've found that you can get nice looking results welding up a frame from 2" square tube and then use bog standard melamine panels for the sides.
3/4" angle can be welded in to hold the panels and hide the melamine edges.
Add some simple box drawers and Ebay slides, and voila...
The drawer pulls are leftover continuous aluminum extrusion. Again, they hide the edges of the melamine.
Anyway, not rocket science, but thought I'd pass the build idea along!
May I ask what mill you're using? Been thinking about a small one for some projects at home.
Have you looked into mpcnc?
Is there a community here for that project?
I haven't seen one. There is a reddit community, but it is extremely slow.
It is a bit of a Frankenstein's Monster. I bought a Benchmill 6000 CNC training mill, stripped out and sold the little Seig mill [that was in it] and shoehorned a Sieg 2.7 with some major modifications. I'm at that dangerous 80% done phase, but so far it works well, notably using the software that came with the original training mill.
The Build Thread, including more pics of the base construction, is here.