Hi,
my name is Rob and I live, and work, in Nijmegen in the Netherlands.
As an electronics/embedded computing engineer I always had an interest in mechanical constructions and automation.
I worked on an NC plotter that was given to our school. It was disassembled at the company we got it from and I had to assemble, power up and learn how to program the whole thing. The plotter table itself was about 6x8 ft and the control cabinet about half of that size and it was programmed using paper-tape (ah yes, I forgot to mention I’m 55 by now so this was almost 40 years ago 
)
This machine was used to make templates that were transferred to metal and then cut/machines by hand. This got me thinking: what if … you replace the pen by a spindle … and I have been wanting to create my own CNC hobby mill since then.
It took all the way up to 2005 before that would actually happen. A friend was looking for a way to produce foam models. He loved the idea of owning a CNC machine to do this but commercial machines were too expensive and he did not have the knowledge to build one himself.
So I tought myself some CAD (SolidEdge) and we bought the CNC components (stepper motors and controllers).
We had some simple software for CNC machining a 3D contour (comparable to what 3D slicing software for a 3D printer does) but machining 2 and 2.5D parts was something different. I would first convert the model into 2D DXF drawings, note all the XY positions and create the program by hand.
This lead to me setting up a company to provide CAD/CAM and prototyping for small businesses and since a few years I do some design and production of components for the same friend I built the CNC machine for.
We bought a well used (meaning old, worn and in desperate need of some TLC) Bridgeport VMC. I cannot remember any part of the machine that not needed some repairs at some time…
After a few years this was not feasible anymore, parts were becoming more expensive and we could not rely on the machine for production.
The Bridgeport is now replaced by a Haas VF3ss which is maintained, programmed and operated mostly by me.
My history shows that I am not a mechanical engineer and I also do not have any education in CNC programming. But I do have some background in manual machining (from my school days). All the other stuff was self taught using the “try, fail, learn, repeat” approach and by studying all the information I could get my hands on.
I call myself a builder (or a maker, but I prefer "Rob the Builder, Bob’s younger brother 
) and I am kind of a jack of all trades. My motto is “Can we make it? Yes we can!”