Cheaper servos

I haven't heard much discussion about sources for servos. What are people
using out there?

I remember a Circuit Cellar column in the early days of Byte wherein Steve
Ciarcia described a neat hack for controlling DC Motors via rotary encoders
for a robotics project. He was enthusiastic about their cheapness compared
to steppers of the day ( on a $/in-lb basis). IIRC he built his own encoder
using a gray-coded paper wheel.

Fellow listers, I submit that we don't need expensive servo motors to
control our brand of basement CNC, just your common DC brush motor, perhaps
from the ubiquitous cordless drill, or auto power window winder, or
windshield wiper motor. DC motors are cheap and plentiful, and we can use
them for our machine tool conversions.

What say y'all?

Phil Plumbo