1.2m x 0.6m plasma, <£2k questions!:

To late to the party !
Oh well...
1.Get some square tubing, 40x40 is ok, 60x60 is better, glue it/weld it/tie it with ropes/whatever just make it move, get one of those old Dells now and install Linuxcnc to start playing with it, get some all thread for the Z and make a floating part with some screws and a switch, get a relay and a Darlington transistor and a resistor together, wire it to plasma and start cutting.
And build a separate table for the material, i build all machines separate form the material table, mainly due to isolating the plasma cutter from the machine part, so if anything goes sideways on the plasma the machine is safe. Not required, just my way of doing things.
2. goto 1 !

Just build it, stop thinking about building it. Just cobble together something that works for now, in a week of a month you would have gathered so much knowledge about how those things work and interact together to build a much better machine, by investing very little money.
What works:
- old PC with parallel port, no bob, a relay, a transistor and a resistor for firing the torch/plasma,
- skate bearings, if you can drill mildly precise holes,
- belts, GT2 with 16 or 20 tooth pulleys
- cheapest drives, the ones named TB6600 with smaller black cases use a much better chip than TB6600, IIRC TB64n109 (very sure about 109), they go from 9 to 15$ a piece, they are less prone to interference and have smother microstepping than 6600 or 6560 or whatever they are called, but at 3.5A max, so plenty even for a bigger machine with reduction.
- all thread, M6 or M8 works nicely for the Z axis, if you can find wide nuts ( ) or get a piece of brass or steel and tap it, 1cm of thread will do, more is better up to 3cm.
- floating head with a switch and magnetic holder for the torch is a must, as without it it is a pain to work with the machine.
- THCAD would be very, very nice.
-
What would be nice:
- 7i96 or 7i76E
- Lam Technologies drives, from DS1044 as the cheapest one at over 100$ a piece. Beware, the current rating on this is 4A RMS but wiring a 4A Chinese motor to it will result in a very crispy motor very fast. These drives do output exactly what they say, even at high speeds, so only high quality motors with these drives.
- SBR rails on both sides
- HGR rail on X axis
- Belt reduction on X and Y
- 1605 ballscrew on Z
- something i forgot ......

Kosovo, ex Yugoslavia, to many f@#n wars, etc.