newbie with compabilty questions and one or two stupid questions?

Hi everyone
got couple questions (sorry for the studpidity level)
I wanna build a cnc milling machine (24x12x8or 12) for mostly making
r/c boat hulls from foam and cutting balsa ( and later on I want to
take it with me to the the transportation design school if I ever can
get into one or have money to pay for it:) for making prototypes out
of foam balsa and aluminum I dont know if I should buy a sherlin
milling machine with cnc setup ( too small work space but probbaly be
more accurate then the i can build plus it will give some experience
altough i did use a milling machine at college for my design
projects) here comes the questions!

My setup is going to be rhino3d (have been using it for a while) and
I got a good deal on desk proto too, which seems easy enough for me
to understand. The part that i wonder is, will i be able to use
deskproto with all the cheaper ( i am a student and a broke one
too ) 3 axis boards out there (xylotex.com) (pmdx.com) (or else)
can someone steer me to right direction with these boards? and whats
the gecko drives? do i need the gecko drives for these boards to work
with Stepper motors or do i need to get the gecko drive? are there
any other options/boards out there?

I have been reseaching about home cnc for a while on the net and
prices for parts vary greatly from page to page.

If i build my own machine with aluminum extrusion parts ( 8020.net)
would the nema 23 motors handle the weight?
the dimensions i am thinking about are 24x12x8 but it really depends
on the screw and the linear rails that are affordable second
hand/ebay.


the hard part seems to be mounting the rails screws and the motor to
the aluminums extrusions since I have no tools except a drill (dremel
is on its way).. but hey, I live in an apartment ( which makes me
think maybe i should get quieter sherline mill)

Is there some other reading on the web I can do ( altough think I
read most of eveything thats out there) sorry fir the amount of
questions BTW,
thanks
eddie