So within a month im picking up an 86 sami. With this being said I'm new to owning a 4x4, not exactly new to being around the scene since a few friends i had in high school owned them, one a sami and one a yota.

The one I'm going to be purchasing already has a SPOA which makes life easier on me with getting one of the steps i want to do out of the way. One of the first things i wanted to acomplish was an axle swap. I've been looking through posts and the debates about yota axles and the dana 44s. What would the be the difference between doing the two swaps, as in cost, fabricating, and time?

Let me ask this......
Are you going to be using it in a way that will require swapping axles?  If not, then you are just wasting time and money doing an axle swap.  If you don't know, then I would wheel it stock for awhile and see how it holds up.  You'd be surprised how much stock samurai axles will handle without breaking....especially when a little common sense is used while wheeling.

I want it to be street legal, not for a daily driver but everyonce in a while, i mainly would be using it in oregon and washington maybe norcal. so i would be using it in the woods so a bit of climbing but nothing like rock quarrys, for now at least.

It doesn't sound like you are going to abuse it.  So I would stick with stock axles for now and see how they hold up.
The problem with danas are they are wide....so you will have problems with keeping your tires covered (and therefore street legal).  Also, toyotas are a little wider than stock axles too, so you would have similar issues with them.  Like I said, no use to spend/waste a lot of time and money, if you don't need to.  Plus, you can wheel it immediately, instead of having to wait until you have the axle upgrades done.

They are also heavy and will suck the energy out of your motor.

I agree with Skyhiranger, wheel now and replace if necessary.  The only thing I would look at adding right away is a traction bar.  Otherwise you can get a nasty case of spring rap and cause some damage.  If you want to brace your axles up a bit Sky Manufacturing makes a great set of axle truss's.

http://www.sky-manufacturing.com/new/detaproduct.php?id=148

Yup... Wait until you break it and save your $$$

Sweet, i will do that, thanks for the advice. as far as good mods to do what should i do before i actually hit the trails? i have a bunch of money to throw into it and i have a vague idea of what i want to do i just need to prioritize now. i know the first thing i am going to do is tires, but after that and a few cheap minor things like rhinolining the inside, getting the engine to stop burning oil, and getting the speedo to work, i have no idea of where to go.