New to cnc, want a small, as in very small cnc for wax pattern fabrication. Will use wax patterns for silver casting rings, buttons, and other jewelry. Any suggestions where to start?
This group is actually about software but your question seems to be more about hardware.
For software I’m developing simplemultiaxiscam to do real 4 (and 5) axis machining with a perfect surface finish by using one of the axis to follow the surface normal. It’s not finished yet but produces working g-code.
I’m doing wax casting too, however in my case the wax is the mold for resins.
My aproach is to modify a YOOCNC/carving-cnc 3040 with new electronics (because the original electronics are noisy and loose steps).
The frame is not rigid enough and the spindle too weak for aluminum but for technical waxes it’s perfect.
The 800W spindle not not much louder then a sewing machine.
My CNC is enclosed in a custom flight case for transportation and I use Basotect acoustic foam to further soundproof it.
The 4th axis it way too weak, even for wax. You have to replace the stepper motor and use a stronger driver to use it.
Also the portal height limits the diameter of parts on the 4th axis quite a lot.
Hi Michael welcome to the community. You have lots of options for hardware such as Ponoko or the Roland machines are very popular. I have an old Roland engraver that I have converted to use reprap ramps (3d printer electronics) and I’m currently upgrading the system to use LinuxCNC instead. I also upgraded the spindle to be more powerful and accept standard collets and bits.
Before you go buying a machine have a good look at the community that use and support the machine as you might need them from time to time.
Thanks for posting here. I hope this has been of help.
Id like to build a cnc from scratch, just no time and no $
Sorry, either one is required 
Cnc is the way to go for jewelry, as opposed to 3d printing, aint it?
You can make jewelry by hand. People have done that for thousands of years.
I know, and do some already; its just the excuse to invest $ in something to aid the 1 of a kind production; carving patterns by hand is so time consuming and labour intensive, hard to get a return on the investment. I often use nature to help, such as bumble bee earings, or scorpion cuff links (with matching bolo tie), or …
Even doing that takes time.