Hey guys,

I have been looking around these forums and others for a good few days now and I'm really starting to procrastinate and I'm jumping from one link to the next looking at different kits. ALL of them have mixed reviews and some with slightly better reviews than others. At the moment I don't really have the time for building my own from scratch. I'm jumping from one project to the next in my life and I want to actually get stuck in and not spend ages trying to collect the parts etc. Just ask my wife.. lol I'm sure she could offer a list of jobs that are still unfinished around the house!
I'm 38 now and recently suffered from ill health.. (hopefully in recovery) and looking at working for myself, at least supporting my wife's wage by doing hobby work etc. I'm not well enough currently to hold down a full time job (some days I am not well enough to work) and it's unfair on a future employer to have to cover my absences.

I'm looking at making items from wood/mdf and occasionally light aluminium jobs. For signs, little gifts, personalised stuff etc.. I don't expect to make a fortune, but I would like to supplement our income while I'm recovering. Also I just love to keep busy and use my hands. I've always been in engineering and I just love to build things and be 'hands on' I got stuck in an office job a few years back and that almost sent me crazy!

So what I'm asking is probably much the same as other guys here, I have read too MANY bad reviews of the chinese imports and I would ideally like to try and use something from the UK. I appreciate 1k is not alot to spend on a CNC router. But I do have a limited budget and this is going to have pay for itself eventually and not become a very expensive paperweight.

I don't need something that is going to offer military spec accuracy. But I would like something that has good value for money and will keep me busy for a couple of years. I would like the working area to be around the A3 region.

Because of this I am tempted by the chinese 6040 model BUT, I cannot justify getting something that may well break within 2 hrs of turning it on!

If you guys could advise me on the best kits for around 1k OR indeed if anyone here would be able to help build something like this with me I really would be grateful. (I have my own computer for the project)

Any advice please guys would be welcome.

thanks

andy