Other Driver Systems?

My MaxNC kicked the bucket again so I'm looking for a cheaper solution than replacing their drive board and dead motors.  Two options I can think of are using small hydraulic motors that won't burn out when overloaded or some other maler's drive products.  Any leads?  Any advice on how to make my own hydraulic system?  I can hook up chips to drive a proportional hydraulic valve to a Raspberry Pi but I know too little about position sensors and the software to make G-Codes work.  Thank you.