Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!! Very detailed and easy to build
Review: This is an Excellent book for the "Do it yourself" person!! The book tells you how to build the CNC machine step-by-step with a lot of pictures and illustrations so that you know exactly what is going on - this is fabulous. The concepts are explained in plain english making it very easy to understand.
I really like the fact that it shows you how to make your own printed circuit boards for the project, how to wire everything up and then interface to the computer - info that always seems to be left out of other books.
I learned a lot about stepper motors, controller chips, and how easy it is to set up the FREE KCam software that is needed to control the machine.
The book gives such great detail that I built the frame from metal pieces that I bought at a local metal supplier instead of the frame from an old NuArc - you can do it either way - the instuctions and drawings make this really easy. It's simple to make your own designs and then have the machine create multiple copies that are exactly the same.
The machine is amazing because I have used it to create big signs (and matching house number signs for everyone on my street), and at the same time it is so precice that I have also been using it to drill precision holes in small circuit boards - perfectly.
This book is well worth the money because it presents you with all the information in one place (including the data sheets for the electronics) that will be needed to actually build the machine - it's great to have the reference material close at hand.
This is an extremely accurate and versatile machine, a great design and a well organized book. Lots of practical application examples as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the Best
Review: This is an okay book. It's good for getting ideas on how to cobble things together from surplus store and scrapyard pickings, as the author has largely done. I like the improvised use of parts, like the home depot TV tray for the z-axis, or an electrical junction box and clamps used to hold the pen for running the initial plotting tests.I have some complaints as well: 1) A good 50 pages are reprint of stepper driver datasheet/application notes that you could probably find on the web. 2) Chapter 3 describes making a printed circuit board, which fine, but many would not want to hassle with the chemicals involved. The author doesn't list perfboards with solder pads as an alternative to making your own PCBs. 3) The author describes how he lifted the linear bearings from some surplus store find that he made. That's great, but what about some parts lists or even just rough specifications for those of us who didn't make that great find in the junkheap somewhere? 4) No mention of what material he used for the guide rails (looks like it could be drill rod or blower shaft to me), or how he drilled and tapped the perfectly parallel holes for fastening it to the frame. The best thing about this book is that it shows you one way to do things from beginning to end with relatively modest tools, that the author was able to achieve some results with. Overall I found it useful and enjoyable.
Rating: 
Summary: okay book - useful for ideas
Review: This is an okay book. It's good for getting ideas on how to cobble things together from surplus store and scrapyard pickings, as the author has largely done. I like the improvised use of parts, like the home depot TV tray for the z-axis, or an electrical junction box and clamps used to hold the pen for running the initial plotting tests. I have some complaints as well: 1) A good 50 pages are reprint of stepper driver datasheet/application notes that you could probably find on the web. 2) Chapter 3 describes making a printed circuit board, which fine, but many would not want to hassle with the chemicals involved. The author doesn't list perfboards with solder pads as an alternative to making your own PCBs. 3) The author describes how he lifted the linear bearings from some surplus store find that he made. That's great, but what about some parts lists or even just rough specifications for those of us who didn't make that great find in the junkheap somewhere? 4) No mention of what material he used for the guide rails (looks like it could be drill rod or blower shaft to me), or how he drilled and tapped the perfectly parallel holes for fastening it to the frame. The best thing about this book is that it shows you one way to do things from beginning to end with relatively modest tools, that the author was able to achieve some results with. Overall I found it useful and enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: PArts good, parts disappointing
Review: This is not a book on general CNC tools, but a book of the author's particular project. If you are daring, you could figure out how to make what you need from the information presented, but you may not be that daring. Also, beware of the poorly-researched appendix on suppliers. In the section on electronics, some suppliers are listed who only seem to do large quantity, wholesale business. Why list suppliers whose minimum order is 100 chips?
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