I am trying to do the semi-homemade mill thing on the cheap too. I started out with a drill press and an import XY table. I think that I paid too much attention to the Internet naysayers who warned that the chuck would come off due to side loading. It never did, but all kinds of other bad things happened. The main problem was the quality of the import XY table. I am now using a Burke table, just like discodan, but this is still a little bit sloppy. I have to take a good look at the gibs. The other problem was the Z movement and tram. Anyway, the setup is making real parts which are doing real work, so that's good. My next step is to put a better vertical head on the machine. I just got a junk wood lathe headstock...