building something to use linuxCNC

we have a lathe and mill that use Linux CNC, and I am tempted to do a 2.5 axis wood router for plywood panels or maybe a CNC plasma cutter for cutting metal sheet

our existing is a mesa and some parallel controller (not onsite to check model#) so not sure what to start with, is there a tutorial for building a 2.5 axis machine and connecting up an interface for Linux CNC?
 

Might as well make it a 3 axis machine while your at it.

Gantry type machines like plasma and routers usually have two motors on the gantry which is simple to do with LinuxCNC. There are plenty of projects on the web to study including my plasma .

JT

For linuxcnc there is no difference between a 3 axis and 2.5 axis machine.