A recent Design News magazine featured a neat article about a fellow that built a wood frame for milling machine. It uses a Dremel-type router for the spindle motor. It’s a hand-cranker, as my machinist buddies say, the only motor is for the spindle.
Cool thing is, the builder, John Duffy used an Atmel-based Arduino board to make a digital readout. This makes the mill much more useful.
You can check out Duffy’s detailed instructions in this PDF file here.