Hi guys! Newbie here. Silly questions coming up

Hi guys,

Great forum, I've been lurking for a while. I've been looking at buying a cnc router for about 8 months now. It'll mostly be used for machining 2d shapes in ply and mdf. An 8' x 4' machine would obviously be ideal but I only have space for a 4' x 4'.

Here's the first silly question,

If I had a 4' x 4' machine with a open ended gantry, could I (in theory) machine a 8' x 4' sheet by flipping it round?

I'm in a bit of a dilemma whether to make or buy. I think I've looked at almost all of the UK manufactures and dealers around my budget (around 5k ish) but none of their machines are ideal for me. Any advice is gratefully received.

Thanks,

Simon