I bought Sherline's high-end mill model 2010-CNC (metric CNC-Ready). I put together a control system of my own choice and tested it yesterday. Works great.
[attach=1]
Today I started writing what is called a G-Code Sender program. This is for real time control of the milling control system which includes both manual control and feeding of a tool path program that is generated by another piece of software.
3D artists would find the pipeline interesting. You first design your 3D object in a modeling program that would be in the category of CAD. I'm using LightWave because I'm very familiar with it. Next you use the model with some software that analyzes it to generate a "tool path" that will make the part. A low cost option is MeshCAM that costs about $250. Finally is the software that feeds this program to the milling machine. This software gives you real time control of the machine. These last two programs fall under the category of CAM.