Hello!

I'm completely new to CNC Milling and Routing, but pretty desperate to find a way of working with alu. My profession is designing and building synthesizer modules, and for a good while I've had contractors making panels for me with hit-and-miss results in terms of quality, speed and expense.

What I'm after is a CNC milling machine which will CUT and engrave 2mm thick anodised aluminium.

The job needs to be clean, as these alu panels are the customer-facing control panels of my products, so I need to be able to manage swarf, etc. and any cuts need to be clean. I'm not necessarily too picky about precision, however.

I'm looking for something that will fit on a workbench in my studio. Note that it's improbable I'd ever be cutting a panel bigger than 300mm x 130mm.

It needs to interface easily with my existing computers, i.e. USB functionality is preferred.

So far I've been really eyeing this up, but totally unsure if I'm getting a good deal or not. Any help would be hugely appreciated.

Cheers!
Fin