Hello all, I have been reading these forums for well over a year now and have decided to join up and start to plan my own setup. I moved to the lower mainland about 7 months ago and after moving a few times have settled down and actually have the room and time to think seriously about my hobbies.

My problem is I have so many hobbies that I never get anything done on any one thing so it seems like a money pit. Im hoping will the right setup I will progress through projects fast enough I dont need to worry about loosing track of my plans.

So what are my hobbies you ask? Well I will list them in order of how often I do them:

1) PCB Milling, 0604/0803 smt, 8-10mil traces, 8-10mil isolation
2) brass/aluminum engraving and cutting (0.3-3mm sheet though I have never used over 1mm yet but would like to)
3) Wood block shelling and sheet metal holing for custom enclosures
4) MDF/pvc/plexi/lexan clocks & gear cutting

For table size 100x80 working area is the absolute smallest I would prefer a smaller table if I must sacrifice accuracy for a larger one as pcb milling is the absolute #1 and I do it weekly while enclosures and clocks every month or two.

Here's the machines I have looked at so far:
9x10 lathe & x2 combo I have seen both a HF and that's one hell of a price, esp since you can get it with an R8 spindle.
Ive looked at all the x1, x2, x3 variations from HF/BB/grizzley as they seem to be the most commonly recommended ones then the Taig/surelines
The x2 can handle any metalwork I could want to do and with $200 and the LMS y-base extension & Longer table I would get 130mmx330mm

Fireball v90 While this gantry model is not tough enough to handle any metals I don't even know if I would be able to cut 1mm brass or aluminum.

Either machine I would put a PaulJones/WolfgangEng spindle or make one if I got the combo package (I want a 9x10 lathe either way) So I can get the 20k+ rpm I need for my pcb and brass working.

My budget is to just get the machine first so if I cant afford to cnc it I will still be able to do alot of things, then pick up motion control from hobbycnc/keeling/gekko or one of the other $400-$600 packages but that will be a later thread.

So I would like to spend $500-$800 on the mill itself and $200-$300 on accessories and bits. If i get a gantry I only need bits & edge/center finders while if I get an vertical mill I will need 1-2-3 blocks, parallels, clamping set, vice, etc as well.

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On a side note while im saving for a solution I was thinking of rigging up a milling table with 1/2in black pipe and fittings from my pipefitter friend and mounting a proxxon or similar rotary tool on a LMS xy table. For $150 and some scrap material to build a z-axis I think it would get my in the right frame of mind. What do you guys think?