newbe not a clue cnc small mill

Sorry if I seem totally stupid
I have big machines that I'm happy with at the moment but someone has
given me a cowells mill with a table size of approx. 160 mm x 60 mm
I'd like to use it for small components and engraving can I direct
drive the steppers from a parallel port using a cheep interface of
simple ish design etc I have a background in electronics &
engineering and have made various interfaces for smart cards ect not
from my own design though any help would be great
Thanks