Hello! I am a high school teacher trying to get the Carvey prepared for students and staff to use. What is the best material for starting out? Where can cheap materials be purchased? Thanks in advance for any advice! 
Insulation foam from a home center is incredibly cheap, and useful for trying out toolpaths if nothing else. https://www.homedepot.com/b/Building-Materials-Insulation-Rigid-Insulation/N-5yc1vZbaxx
HDPE cutting boards can be affordable (or if one can get large sheets from a home center, e.g., https://www.menards.com/main/building-materials/panel-products/specialty-panels/plastic/1-4-x-4-x-8-hdpe-panel/p-1444424094192-c-14048.htm ) or cutting boards from a restaurant supply store: http://www.therestaurantstore.com/
Some more links which may be helpful at: Shapeoko CNC Router, Rigid, Accurate, Reliable, and Affordable.
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Thank you so much!!!
MDF is very cheap, easy to cut and comes in .25, .5 and .75 thickness
If using MDF in a school setting, be sure to have excellent dust collection / air filtration (when I sent my SO2 in to my son’s school they ran it in an exhaust chamber in the chemistry room) and if possible, source MDF which doesn’t contain formaldehyde.
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