Newbie questions about CNC turning wood

I am a semi-professional builder of English bagpipes and am
looking into using a Sherline CNC lathe to do some of the
turning, mostly in wood, with some parts in brass and
imitation ivory. Do folks on the list have opinions about
using this
equipment for turning woods? (The woods used are ebony and
African blackwood, which turn more like metal than pine.) I
presume I would need strong dust collection to keep the
lathe screws clean?

The main features of the turnings would be numerous square
shoulders, a few small bead features, and some gentle
curves. So far the cheaper CAD software I have seen is poor
for gentle curves and often the Help files are bad. Can
anyone recommend a CAD package under $300 that would be easy
to use, well-documented, and handle curves nicely?

Lastly, I would prefer to go to a Sherline CNC vendor and
simply buy a package with the lathe already converted for
CNC, all included. Any advice on which vendors would be
best for my use?

Thanks in advance,

John Liestman
Houston, Texas
There is a picture of one of my instruments on
my website at http://web.wt.net/~liestman/ .