Very rough drawing, but to illustrate what I’m talking about:
The two arms (front center and back right) in the front are either longer or the axis motor is lower than the axis motor at the back left. It has the same effect as lengthening/shortening the rods as it does to have the effective length of the rods be “shortened” by moving the fixed point (axis motor) higher.
Absolutely - I think the next big innovation we should work towards is a combined 4-5 axis mill AND printer. That way we can print only a fraction more of the material we actually need, then use the router to shape it appropriately.
Eventually there will be just 1 CNC machine that will have all of these functions: From Milling to pick and place, EDM and Printing.
Nah…by the time all those things come together, someone will have invented the Replicator (the Star Trek one, not the Makerbot one). 
(Imagine; my firefox home page is now : http://www.tinyclr.com/forum/watched)
@ devhammer, Yea, that someone will be me!