I am going to purchase the 30x30 LongMill and I’m not sure if it makes sense to buy the spindle kit instead of using the Makita router. Just wondering if anyone has used both or has any insight on what way I should go. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
It all depends on personal factors.
If you are anything like me, a lumberjack, getting a new tool, I would assume, I am going to run things into the ground. Actually I did, my first makita router lived for about a month before I had it belch out a cloud of smoke because something went wrong, went wrong fast and went wrong scary enough for me to not want to approuch the mill and press stop. I let it play out and learn my lesson the hard way.
Had I wrecked a spindle, I certainly would regretted it more. Now it was just a palm router downgraded to become a part donor for the new makita.
More power is more wreckage when things don’t go as planned. And things will go that route - for sure.
If you are not a lumber jack and/or have some milage doing cnc. Sure.
It is nice to have more power, more control, less noise (That makita is a barker), cleaner cuts, wider range of collets, to not have to think about turning on your spinning tool and to have that more professional look on your machine.
I love my little barker though. It’s a tough one, if you manage to not slam it collet deep into a slab of fine pine.
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I think if you are a beginner in CNCing it would be simplest to go with the Makita first. You can always upgrade later once you feel comfortable with the machine 
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@JHiggs2024 I have not used a spindle, but have had my Makita since the kickstarter days of the Long Mill. It has a lot of trouble-free hours on it. I have replaced the brushes once. As for noise levels, IMHO, it’s not an issue at all. Once the bit is in the wood, between the sound level of the bit cutting, my dust collector running and my earmuffs on, I can’t hear the router at all.
There are some positive aspects to running a spindle for sure. However, I read many more posts about spindle issues than with Makita issues. I believe that @kellyz is offering you good advice.
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Thanks for all that insight, looks like I’ll start with the Makita and take it from there. Thanks again.
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Starting with the Router is a good idea. Later on, if you think you might want to upgrade to the spindle, consider this…
The spindle lets you use bigger bits. The 1.5KW spindle allows me to use 3/8" bits instead of 1/4" like the Makita does. It makes surfacing my end-grain cutting boards go much faster.
Also, I use VCarve and when it generates the gcode files it includes the codes to start and stop the spindle automatically and what speed to set it to.
As someone else indicated, the Spindle is more quiet but then that is offset by the noise that is generated by the cutter in the wood and your Shop vac or dust collector 
.
Lastly, Sienci Labs have done an very good job with making it very easy to install and configure the Spindle and VFD. In fact, since I set mine up, they have now made it even easier to configure the firmware by including all those settings in a gCode file and having people just run it in gSender like a regular job. There is no need anymore to manually scroll through the list of setting to do the configuration.
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