The company that imports Ridgid Routers is only about 90 minutes away from us and we can get a decent discount off them when bought in bulk so we will be putting together a kit with a simplified meticulous Z axis soon to help keep the costs down. I was hoping to somehow modify the router base to improve the original Z axis, but not sure if it is economically feasible. The cost of buying bungees, making top hats, and adding bushings and washer to remove the slack plus labor is about the same as the z axis parts from china.