yes a three axis mill will move up/down, front to back, then sideways as wel. The reach of this mill is emtirely up to the desinger, this design is scaleable , so it can be made bigger with a bigger reach if the maker wants it to.
I also found these:
Vac former:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-goo...t-plastic-vacu/
3d scanner:
http://www.instructables.com/id/David-3D-scanner/
Silk screening:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Silkscreen-Print-with-Vinyl/
Body armor:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Body-armor-from-craft-foam/
What I love about this site is its off the shelf cheap ways ofmaking expensive items.
For instance if you have a 3 axis mill, laser scanner, and a vacu-former, you can pretty much make anything.
As an axample: Say you have the legendary helmet from Halo 3 but your pissed it doesnt fit, use you home made inexspansive laser scanner, and scan it to your computer, now readjust the scale abit bigger.
Now using your new home made 3 axis mill carve out (quickly minutes or hours instead of days or weeks) your new legendary helmet in the proper size say out of wood, or foam.
Then reinforce the item by brushing epoxy over it, bondo what ever. now take it to your band saw and slice it into half, or into pieces to be vac formed.
Now vac form the new helmet. trim it, expoy it together, paint it and viola, in a day or two you now have a new fully wearable legendary helmet that you can actually wear. Instead of it taking days or weeks with tons of effort and time, now you can rattle out Halo parts almost effortlessly.
These are on my to do list for sure, not to mention my christmas list!! I hope santas listening!!
In the end your talking about maybe spending a couple hundred for all three of these items, instead of 10's of thousands. and the benefits are limitless.
This instructables site is worth spending several hours diging through. I wish I had found it years ago!
If I make these items I am planning on remaking a new vader helmet and dome but this time from scratch!