Also, you get much more machine than what I got, you start looking at greater electrical requirements that a normal house outlet. Be sure to read and understand the electrical requirements of what you're looking at. All the manuals for the machines I was considering were available on the web, via PDF, and I read many of them, to fully understand the different capabilities and limitations of what I was considering.
Not to hijack this;, but be realistic on what you are going to do (like Lance did). You can't just "convert" any machine to CNC - it's not that simple. There are other considerations on the internals of the machine that will be the hold up on going CNC on the cheap. The term CNC is thrown around easily, but the true value of a CNC machine is high volume production. If you can't machine parts from scratch manually, you aren't going anywhere with a CNC setup - cost also goes up 10 or 20 fold for a nice setup. 95% of what you will need to make can be done on a manual machine.
For the weight issue; you can go to (call) a local equipment rental and get a forklift brought over on a truck ($100.00 to $200.00), and if they are helpful, the guy will drive if for you - but that will end at the garage door on a home due to height. You can "shimmy" it in or use heavy equipment rollers to finish if you are determined to get it in. You don't have to go full tilt on this though is you want to make small parts for yourself vs. going into business. You can get a small machine (s) and be just as good.
X and Y on the table, my Z axis
I knew Lance studied up - good job - talks like a pro!
The power problem comes with larger equipment that will require 220 / 3 phase power (not available in a home ) but you can get a Phase converter to skirt this also.
BJ;
Carba-Tec C0:
Varible speed is good, only a 3 jaw chuck - good for most of what you will do though. Distance between centers (think length) is very short.
L194;
better choice but it is 240volt - depending on the other specs might work from your garage dryer plug.
M150 mill;
best of what the links showed.
These are still much smaller than what Lance bought though. Start here if you don't understand the specs:
[link]http://www.mini-lathe.com/Mini_lathe/Introduction/introduction.htm[/link]
[link]http://www.sherline.com/millterm.htm[/link]
My search was for "milling machine terminology" and "lathe terminology" on google - there are more links there. Also search milling machine and Lathe on wikipedia.com
Dennis